Into the Open Air (RotBTD)
by KingdomDance
Summary: This is the story of when Merida got locked inside Rapunzel's old tower with her weapons hidden and is guarded by Pitch Black for revenge on Jack Frost. Now it's up to Rapunzel, Jack, Hiccup, Toothless, and maybe even Astrid, Flynn, and even the guardians to save her.
1. Chapter 1

_Merida, a royal princess locked inside a tower hidden from anything else_. Confused? Allow me to explain, let's begin at the time some of them met for the first time…

It all began when all five of them were doing separate things. Rapunzel is baking with Flynn, her husband, inside their castle. Hiccup and Toothless are flying to their hearts' content somewhere in Scotland. Jack is having a really intense snowball fight with Jamie and their friends, and Merida is riding Angus while shooting some arrows to the targets set up in the forest.

She was about to shoot but then Angus made an unexpected turn and the arrow accidentally shot up instead of down.

And guess what? It almost hit Hiccup and Toothless. Merida was shocked but she didn't look up to know what she hit since she thought it was only the sky, and not a one legged viking-ish person who's riding a dragon…

In Hiccup's and Toothless' perspective, they were having fun and then out of nowhere, an arrow almost shot Toothless' wings. He almost lost control and they almost fell, good thing Hiccup calmed him down. He looked down to see who shot the arrow, and he saw a girl with frizzy red hair, riding a horse shooting arrows almost everywhere.

"Hey!" he shouted, but the girl didn't hear him.

"Hey! You!" Hiccup tried again, Toothless finally saw her and shot a fire infront of them, this caused Merida to stop Angus, her horse. She got down with the bow and arrow all fixed up, ready to shoot someone.

"Up here!" Hiccup called, Merida looked up and saw a dragon and someone riding it, she screamed and shot an arrow to them. Luckily, Hiccup and

Toothless are quick so she missed.

"Wh-Who are you?" she asked them.

"Why'd you shoot an arrow towards us?" Hiccup asked.

"I didn't shoot an arrow to you."

"Uh, yeah you did."

"No, I didn't!" Merida said, her Scottish accent getting thicker and thicker.

"Then who was the person who shot an arrow to us?" Hiccup said, gesturing to both him and Toothless. Merida looked at the dragon and then realised

what she almost had done.

"Ooh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, it was just, Angus went left when it was supposed to go straight so I accidentally shot the arrow up, I'm really sorry." Merida immediately said, she really was sorry.

"It's-It's fine. I'm Hiccup by the way, and this is Toothless." he said.

"I'm Merida." she replied, "And this is Angus."

Toothless looked at Merida curiously until he cuddled-ish with her, she smiled and said how cute he was.

"He likes you, I guess." Hiccup shrugged, sort of annoyed because Toothless wasn't like that when it came to Astrid.

"Well, I like you too, Toothless," Merida said, "You seem very nice."

"He is." Hiccup said, "Sometimes."

Toothless gave Hiccup a glare but he only shrugged, Merida laughed at the two.

"Well, it's time for me to be heading back then." Hiccup said, climbing onto Toothless.

"Yeah, me too." Merida said, climbing onto Angus, "Nice meetin' ya though, Hiccup."

"Yeah, you too, Merida." he said, and then they both set off, riding in opposite directions. Both knowing it's the start of a new friendship.

On Rapunzel's and Flynn's side of the story, Rapunzel left the freshly baked cookies on the table with Pascal guarding them. Flynn is just cleaning the mess they had just made.

When out of the blue, snow was falling. There're snowflakes almost everywhere. Pascal seemed confused so he looked around, seeing a boy seemingly just as old as Rapunzel is, with feathery white hair, wearing a blue hoodie, and sitting barefoot on a question mark formed staff, looking hungrily onto those cookies.

Pascal got alarmed and hid behind the plate, turning himself light blue, matching the table.

"Pascal, what—" Rapunzel said, stopping herself when she saw the boy and the snow.

"J-Jack Frost?" she asked, yes, Rapunzel believes in Jack Frost. Mother Gothel used to tell her stories and being her, she never stopped believing.

"You believe in me?" he asked.

"Y-Yes."

Jack was overjoyed when he heard this, he got down and hugged Rapunzel. Even though people believe in him, he still is happy to know other people other than children believe.

"Hey, hey hey! What do you think you're doing?" Flynn came from behind.

"You can see me?"

"Uh, yeah. Of course I do. You're not invisible, you know." he snapped.

"It's okay, Eugene. He was just happy that I believe in him." Rapunzel explained.

"Oh really, and you believe in him in doing what, exactly?"

"He's Jack Frost!" she explained, Jack standing beside her happily.

"Oh, well don't go hitting on Rapunzel, okay?" Flynn said, laughing a bit, before going on aggressive saying, "She's MINE."

Jack laughed a bit, "Don't worry, lover-boy, I'm not hitting on her. She's not my type."

"Excuse me?" Rapunzel said, placing her hands on her hips, with sass.

"Nothing, nothing." Jack said, and it's true. He wouldn't hit on a married woman, it's wrong...

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**Hello, this story is also in wattpad I just thought I'd like to share this with you too :) please tell me what you think and I'm sorry if this looks so ammateur... it's my first time writting a RotBTD Fan Fiction I hope you like it though**


	2. Chapter 2

Merida just got back from her encounter with Hiccup. She had Angus stay in the stables and went inside their castle. She went in the kitchen where the maids are preparing their lunch. She took a whole load of beignets and an apple, then went inside their dining room where her mum, Queen Elinor, her dad, King Fergus, and her three identical brothers, Hamish, Hubert and Harris, are eating lunch.

"… And from out of nowhere, the biggest bear you have ever seen with tied up weapons of fallen warriors! His face, scarred with one dead eye," her father is telling the ever-so-famous story of him and the demon bear, Mor'du, again, "I drew my sword, and—"

"Woosh! One swipe his sword was shattered and, chop! Dad's leg was clean off! Down that monster's throat it went." she cut her father off, telling the story herself.

"Aw! That's my fav'rite part!"

"Mor'du has never been seen since," she continued, "and is roaming the wild, waiting his chance of revenge."

Even though everyone knows Mor'du is dead, nobody ever thought of changing the story, since it's awesome the way it is.

"Merida, why do you always do that?" her dad complained jokingly. She only made a funny face and laughed, she placed her bow on the table and sat down.

Her mother tsk'ed and said, "Merida, no weapons on the table."

"But mum," Merida groaned, sitting down. Her mum gave her a warning look before continuing to eat after Merida placed the bow around back of the chair.

"So, I met someone today." she said, taking a huge bite off of the chicken leg.

"And who would that be, lassie?" her dad asked.

"His name's Hiccup. He has a pet dragon!" she told them.

"A dragon, eh? That's impossible, dragons are dangerous." the Queen said.

"Well it's true. Toothless even likes me!"

"Toothless?" the queen asked.

"The dragon!" she said.

Then her mum hushed her, "Lower your voice, Merida."

This made her roll her eyes. She turned to her dad and her three brothers, who're listening eagerly.

"He has dark blue skin and scales. But he has a broken tail." she said.

"A broken tail? He couldn't fly then." her father said, thinking about his knowledge with dragons.

"He can, that's why he has Hiccup."

Merida continued to tell her father and brothers about Hiccup as inbetween the story-telling, Queen Elinor kept on telling the triplets to eat their Haggis, which is sheep stomach.

"Well I heard, there's a dragon in the kingdom of Corona." King Fergus said.

"Maybe he knows who it is!"

Hiccup got back to Berk, where Fishlegs was waiting for him, as well was Astrid. He got off Toothless and led him behind their house, where he rested. Astrid and Fishlegs went to Hiccup and told him that his father, Stoick the Vast, was looking for him.

He nodded and went to where he guessed his dad was, inside a house with Gobber.

"You wanted to see me, dad?" he asked.

"Oh-uh, yes, I did." he paused, "You see, Hiccup, someone from a kingdom called Corona wanted to see you…"

"Why?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you knew. His name is…" Stoick said as he looked at Gobber, gesturing him to tell Hiccup who it was since he forgot.

"Rider, he's the prince as far as I know."

"Rider."

"Oh, when can I go?"

"Maybe tomorrow, if it's alright."

"Oh, sure. I guess." Hiccup said, suddenly feeling awkward.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

A long silence followed that, then Hiccup spoke again.

"I guess I should go then, uh—"

"—Yeah."

"Yeah." then he left. Going outside, seeing Astrid and Fishlegs.

"Well? What did he say?" Fishlegs asked him immediately although at the same time somewhat scared of what Hiccup's dad told him.

"Apparently, I have to go to a kingdom." Hiccup shrugged.

"Why?" Astrid asked.

"I don't know, maybe they saw Stormfly." Hiccup said. Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, has been lost for a while and everywhere they look, he's just not there.

"I hope so." she said.

The next day, Hiccup got all set up. He climbed onto Toothless and flew off. Hiccup doesn't really know where Corona is.

"Hey, bud, do you know where Corona is?" he asked. Toothless nodded a bit as they flew above the a mountain near the forest the met Merida, and sure enough, they saw her again. She's sitting down by the grass with Angus right next to her.

Hiccup and Toothless flew down near her and when she saw them, she grinned widely and waved to them.

"Hiccup, Toothless, hi!"

"Hey, Merida." Hiccup smiled, Toothless too. Even though he doesn't have teeth when he smiles. Merida smiled at his cuteness.

"So, what brings you here?" she asked.

"Oh, we were just on our way to Corona. Someone there wants to meet me."

"Corona? I heard that there's a dragon there."

"Really?"

"Yes, my dad told me."

"What… That's great!" Hiccup said as he hugged Toothless. Merida chuckled lowly before asking him shyly,

"C-Can I come?" she asked.

"What?" Hiccup said, he didn't quite catch what she said.

"Can I come along?" she said again, "My mother wouldn't let me go anywhere."

"Oh-uh, sure, but Angus couldn't." Hiccup said, "There won't be enough room."

"It's alright," Merida laughed, "Angus is trained, he knows where to go home."

"That's good then, let's go." he said, climbing onto Toothless. Merida took her bow and placed it around her, she took the quiver filled with arrows and hung it onto the skirt of her dress.

"Hold onto me." Hiccup said, Merida nodded, knowing that if she didn't, she'll fall off.

Merida hold onto Hiccup, Toothless prepaired himself and flew up real quickly, having Merida gasp. She looked down and saw that they're very high already.

"We're friends now, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. How about best friends?"

"Sure." she smiled happily.

Soon enough, they got to a kingdom placed above an island in the sea. There's a huge castle and there're smaller houses near it. It's really small to be honest.

"Is this it?" Hiccup asked.

"Looks like it." Merida said, as they flew downwards.

They walked around with people staring at them, probably because they have a dragon with them and dragons are very frightening. Hiccup went near the castle as Merida excused herself as she went to buy apples.

Hiccup stood at the front of the gates as the guards keep questioning him who he is and what his intention is. And for the hundredth time, he said that a person named Rider was looking for him. The guard was about to ask him again when 'Rider' himself saw.

"Hey, I was expecting him." he said.

"There, see?" Hiccup said, the guards looked at him with narrow eyes before allowing him to go inside.

"Hiccup, right?" he asked, walking with Hiccup deeper into the castle.

"Yeah, and you're Rider, right?"

"Yes. But call me Flynn." he paused, "You see, Hiccup, there's a dragon in this kingdom and he won't go away. Someone told me you're an expert when it came to these things so I thought of giving you a call."

"Oh, well, where is the dragon?"

"It usually goes near the balcony by lunch time when the princess, my wife, is baking cookies. You can wait there." he stopped, once they're at the top of the stairs. Toothless had to stay outside with the guard because the door is too small.

"Can I sit here?" he asked, looking at the chair near the balcony.

"Sure, I'll go call Rapunzel." Flynn said as he left. Hiccup stayed there, assuming that Rapunzel is the princess. When out of nowhere, someone flew near the balcony. He has really pale skin and white hair, also, there's snow everywhere.

"Hey, Punzie! When are you going to bake those cookies? I'm starv—" he saw a strange boy wearing a tunic staring at him wide eyed. "—ving."

"How… How did you fly?" he asked, surprised. Jack was surprised himself, when Hiccup talked to him.

"Well, I'm a Winter Spirit, A.K.A. a guardian. So it's part of the package, and you are?"

"Hiccup," he replied, "I came here to get Stormfly and bring her home."

"I'm Jack, Jack Frost. I assume Stormfly is the blue dragon who always goes here for Punzie's cookies."

"She is."

Then, Rapunzel got out. Holding a tray of cookies.

"Mm, yum!" Jack said, flying inside to get some of the cookies, but she moved it further from him so he couldn't get any.

"Oh no, you don't. The guest gets to take one first." she said.

Hiccup only stared at her, the girl infront of him has really… really long blonde hair. Doesn't she trip?

"Th-Thank you." he said as he took one.

"No big deal." she smiled, "Hiccup, right?"

"Yeah." and then, a big blue dragon flew to the balcony.

"Stormfly!" he called as he ran towards the dragon.

"So, you train dragons?" Rapunzel asked curiously from behind him.

"Yeah, I do." Hiccup answered, well that would explain his metal foot...

"You don't have to leave now, right? Eugene, Jack, you and I can talk about it! I want to learn how to train dragons! There aren't much dragons here, it's kinda boring." Rapunzel laughed.

"Who's Eugene?"

"I am." Hiccup turned around and saw Flynn.

"Oh, then how come you told me your name is Flynn?" Hiccup asked.

"It's only Rapunzel who calls me by my real name, which is Eugene." he said.

"And what would you do with a dragon, Rapunzel?" Jack asked her annoyingly.

"Oh shut up, Jack." she replied, Jack rolled his eyes. Then he groaned out loud, "Can I have some cookies now?"

Rapunzel sighed and placed the plate infront of him, he took a whole lot and stuffed it in his mouth. She rolled her eyes.

The four continued to talk about themselves and eventually, Hiccup learned about her golden hair, about Flynn being a thief, about mother Gothel, and about Jack being a guardian. The only thing that wasn't shared, is about Pitch Black.

Merida just finished buying random things like purple flags with a sun drawn on it and lots and lots of apples, as well as reading books in the library. She eventually got tired and wanted to go home. She went to the castle where she assumed Hiccup is at. Eventually, she saw Toothless. Toothless spoke and as far as Merida could understand, Hiccup has been there inside the castle for quite some time now and Toothless is getting bored.

She understood that the guard don't let just anybody in, so she told Toothless to walk at the side so the guards'll follow him and she can sneak inside.

The plan worked. Merida sneaked inside and followed the sound of people talking. She walked upstairs and saw Hiccup talking to a girl with ridiculously long blonde hair, and another boy. She didn't see Jack because he's only near the balcony, eating the cookies with Stormfly.

"Hiccup," she said once they stopped, "Can we go back to Scotland?"

"I-uh, Merida," Hiccup stuttered.

"Oh, so you're Merida!" the girl with the long hair said.

"Yes, and you are?"

"Hiccup was just talking about how you two met." she said, Merida nodded slowly.

"Oh! I'm Rapunzel by the way," she laughed, "That's Eugene over there," she pointed to the other boy.

"Actually, you can call me Flynn." Eugene said.

"Yeah, and that's Jack." Rapunzel continued, pointing to the boy at the window. Merida looked and saw the skinny boy with snow around him, sitting on a nearly frozen balcony, holding a staff.

"I'm Merida." she said not surely, she finds him familiar looking. Jack turned around to see Merida until their eyes met.

They've seen each other before.

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**Thank you for the positive feed back, I honestly didn't think anyone would review! Thanks again :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"J-Jack Frost?" Merida muttered.

Jack continued to stare at her, and she didn't speak another word. They remembered it clearly. They met back then when Merida was just a little girl.

_It was back then when the princess, Merida, was younger. She was practising her skills in archery again. Even though she's only eight, she insisted and her mother agreed. They went back outside, a lot farther than the first time they went out. Hopefully, they won't catch Mor'du again._ {**A/N: remember this happened when she was a kid so Mor'du isn't dead yet.**}

_"Now now, that's it. Draw it all the way back to yer cheek, keep both eyes open," the king guided her, as she did so._

_"And, shoot."_

_Apparently, she missed again so she went back to the forest to fetch it._

_On Jack's side, he's doing his regular job, spreading snow everywhere. He's in the Highlands of Scotland right now, when an arrow immediately passed through him. He flew a bit higher to see who shot it and there, he saw a little girl running towards the forest. She's wearing a blue-green dress and has frizzy red hair._

_Jack hid behind a tree, he saw that the girl is looking for something. Until she saw it, the arrow. Jack flew closer and the girl noticed the snowflakes._

_"It's snowing!" she smiled happily, Jack went closer and Merida finally saw him._

_"Jack Frost!" she gasped._

_"Y-You believe in me?" he asked, this moment happened before Jamie and the whole others by the way, before Jack became a guardian and those other things. Merida nodded, smiling big, allowing Jack to see all those pearly whites._

_"You are real." she whispered._

_Jack, as his first—and always—reaction, he was so happy he did a tumbling whilst laughing and after that, he hugged her tightly._

_When he let go, he saw that she never stopped smiling, and that's when they heard a distant shout._

_"Merida! C'mon, lass, we're leaving!" apparently, it's her dad._

_So she ran back and hid under the table, knowing perfectly well that her mum and dad are looking for her._

_"Merida!"_

_Merida giggled while hugging onto her knees._

_Until her mother found her, "Ah, there you are."_

_She continued to laugh then her mum picked her up._

_"Mum! I met Jack Frost!" she said excitedly._

_"Jack Frost, eh? That lad isn't real." her dad said, "C'mon, let's go before we see a dancing unicorn." he continued as well as doing a silly dance._

_"Your father, he just doesn't believe." Queen Elinor said to Merida._

_"Well he should, because he's real." she replied._

Jack and Merida continued to stare into each other until Rapunzel broke the silence.

"So-uh, you two know each other?" she asked.

"Yeah, we do." he replied.

"Oh, okay then."

"Nice to see you again, Merida." he said, she nodded. Surprised he hasn't changed until she remembered that Jack Frost is a Winter spirit, of course he doesn't age.

"Nice to see you too again, Jack." she replied.

"I see you still believe in me…"

"I guess so."

"Did… Did you two fight or something?" Hiccup asked, all four of them, getting lost as they stare at Merida and Jack.

"What? No, we just met again and yeah," Merida said, not knowing why it seems so awkward.

"Oh, well Merida, I didn't expect you to look like… that." Jack said as he gestured to her.

She felt insulted, a bit. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, it's just that… You didn't change a bit." Jack smirked, thinking to annoy this red-headed lady since… it seemed fun.

"Am I supposed to?" she asked.

"No! I didn't mean it that way. You just don't look as lady-like as Punzie here." he said, looking at her while holding his staff.

"And you seemed to grow skinnier." she shrugged.

He laughed, "Is that supposed to be an insult?"

"For a lady, no. For a boy," she looked at him, he seemed to be insulted since she called him a boy, "absolutely." she continued with a mocking tone.

"Listen, Merida," he said, stepping closer, "I can—"

"Okay!" Rapunzel cut Jack off, "Obviously, you said that you two needed to be going…" she gestured to Merida, who was fuming with anger, and Hiccup, who just sat there not sure of what to do, "So I guess you should, visit again." she said with fake enthusiasm.

"Then we're leaving." Merida said, not breaking the glaring contest she's having with Jack, "Hiccup?"

"Coming." he said before Merida walked downstairs as he went to Stormfly.

"Fly down, girl." he said, Stormfly looked at him and then flew down. Hiccup followed Merida and ran downstairs.

"I see you don't like Merida, Jack." Rapunzel glared at her friend, "Way to go, scaring the guests."

Jack rolled his eyes, "I only wanted to tease her, Rapunzel. I don't _hate_ her."

"Sure you don't." Rapunzel said.

"I don't hate her, not before she called me skinny."

"And how does that insult you?" Flynn asked him.

"It… It just does." Jack said.

"You know what I think?" Flynn asked them both.

"What?" Punzie and Jack said in unison.

"I think you have a crush on her, Jackie." he said teasingly.

"Shut up, Flynn." Jack said, irritated, Rapunzel noticed and smirked at Jack.

"I think you _do _have a crush on Merida, Jack! You find her pretty, huh?"

"I **don't** have a crush on that curly haired weirdo, Rapunzel."

"What ever you say." both Flynn and Rapunzel sing-songed in unison.

Jack exhaled, annoyed by his two supposedly called 'friends'. He flew out of the castle in annoyance. Rapunzel and her husband laughed and ate the remaining three cookies.

"Oh Merida, you like him don't you?" Hiccup teased Merida, who held onto him while they flew back to Scotland.

"I don't!" she said, annoyed.

"What ever you say, lady." he laughed.

When they got back, it's already night time. Merida got into the castle secretly, and Hiccup tip-toed quietly once he and Toothless got back to Berk. Luckily, he got away with it. Merida unfortunately, didn't. She got caught by her mum and she had to explain where she went. She also had to deal with her mum's one thousand questions.

"Why didn't you ask permission?"

"Because I know you wouldn't let me."

Queen Elinor tsk'ed, "When you want to leave, ask me next time, okay?"

Merida looked at her mum strangely, No punishments? Did she drink a potion or something?

"Okaay." she replied suspiciously.

"Okay, good night, love."

"Good night, mum." and they both went to their rooms. But then it began to rain, and a loud thunder was heard. Merida instantly got frightened a bit because she always has this _fear_ for thunderstorms. She went under the quilt and tried to ignore the loud sounds, but she couldn't.

Meanwhile, in Rapunzel's, Flynn's, and Jack's point of view, there is only light rain. Punzie cuddled with Flynn as Jack just stayed on the balcony. He thought of going back to where Jaime lives since he's gone for around a week, getting to know his new friends a.k.a. Flynn and Rapunzel.

In Hiccup's and Toothless' point of view, they're both asleep. Toothless lied somewhere near Hiccup's bed, inside the house/cottage. Toothless kept twisting and turning on the wooden floor, apparently, he's having a bad dream, a nightmare…

Somewhere in Burgess, United States, near Jack's pond, a broken bed begins to shake. It continues until it flew off the ground in a quick motion. When you look under it, you see a deep hole, and out of that hole flew creatures that seemed to be shadows, shadows that looked to be formed as horses.

And once all those 'shadows' are out, a man flew out too. He wore all black and seemed devious. He inhaled the fresh air almost as if he was trapped underground, and when he exhaled, he smiled.

"I told you," he said, to no one in particular at all, "there will always be fear."

After that, he made a gesture to the shadows who galloped off, and then he followed, rubbing something in his hands that seemed to be black sand.

Pitch is back.


	4. Chapter 4

Rapunzel, Jack, Hiccup and Merida became closer by the next couple of days. Merida visits Punzie and Flynn through Angus with her mum and dad's permission. Sometimes, she even brings her brothers along because they want to. Jack visits regularly and Hiccup also returns with Toothless.

One time, Rapunzel joined Merida to the forest near the kingdom and painted targets on it. Merida often rides Angus through that forest and shoot some arrows to the targets just like when she was in Scotland. Everyone thought this habit of Merida practising her skills in archery was a great idea. All of them except Jack. He always thought that this was a bad idea since who knows what could be inside that forest. But Merida never cared, she always thought that Jack's opinion doesn't matter since all he does is tease her.

But hey, Jack can be sweet if she just let him be. And for Jack, Merida would've considered his idea if he wasn't that much of a jerk to her.

One day, Merida set off, riding through that forest, shooting arrows to the targets. It's still quite early so there should be nothing to worry about, right?

Rapunzel on the other hand, was getting angry at Merida's identical brothers, who are eating almost every food they see. Some of the guards are chasing them as they took in all of the pancakes Rapunzel just made.

"Oh boy," she sighed, "I am never having boys."

Flynn looked at her weirdly, "Don't worry, love, I'll handle them once they found those three."

"I hope so…" she muttered then kissed him at the cheek before going to some other part of the castle to paint. She hasn't painted in a long time and she missed it. Rapunzel took out the things she needed, she squeezed the bottles filled with paint to the wooden palette and thought of what to paint…

Jack suddenly appeared beside her, "Hey, Rapunzel." he greeted.

"Hi, Jack." she smiled back, and continued to think.

"What'cha doin?" he asked her.

"Oh, just thinking of what to paint—" before she got the idea "—I got it!" Rapunzel dipped her paintbrush to the skin-colored paint and painted an ellipse on the white wall.

"What'd you thought of?" he asked curiously.

"Oh you'll see." she smiled, Jack smiled back and sat down, leaning on the wall as Rapunzel continued to paint.

He began to think deeply about something, then he ruffled his hair before groaning quietly. Then he sighed.

"Worried about Merida, I see." Rapunzel said as she noticed his stressed actions. Jack suddenly looked up at her, surprised.

"What? No. I'm not worried about her, I'm annoyed by her. Just because she does that routine of hers at her home doesn't mean she can do it here in Corona." he said, resisting to sound angry, but failed anyway.

"Jack," Rapunzel said and he looked, "you're worried, admit it."

He rolled his eyes and sighed again, "Fine, let's say I _am_ worried, what do you suppose I should do? Go after her and convince her that the forest is dangerous?"

Rapunzel chuckled, "I didn't say that, Jack. But if you want to, sure."

A long silence followed that, before it got ruined by little footsteps, running away followed by bigger footsteps. Rapunzel continued to paint and sighed, "Those are the boys, eh?" Jack asked.

"Probably." she answered, Jack chuckled to himself and thought that he and those triplets never actually talked. They'd always be hanging out with Flynn as he reads them stories about Flynnagen Rider or with Rapunzel as she cooks, or with Hiccup and Toothless doing who knows what. He never actually hung out which is weird because, Hamish, Hubert, and Harris believe in him anyway, and he _is_ the guardian of fun.

"Jack," Rapunzel said, "go fly for a while." she says.

"Why?"

"You seem like you need some air." she shrugged and continued to paint, this time using the colors red and orange. Jack thought about it...

"Sure." he said, then flew off. He decided to take his mind off things so he went to some other parts of the world and did his job, spreading snow.

Merida continued to ride to her heart's content before Angus made an instant halt, she got thrown off again.

"Angus!" she shouted but Angus hid behind a tree. She stood up and fixed the bow around her, she looked around and saw that she's in the middle of nowhere… let alone she heard something call her, but in a whisper.

"What—" she muttered as she turned around, and there she saw,

A whisp.

"A whisp?" she said as she walked towards it, and as she was about to touch it, it disappeared. She looked back at Angus, who was neighing with fear. Merida then remembered what happened after she tried to follow a whisp back then, chaos.

She walked back to Angus but she heard it call her again. She tried to ignore it but it won't stop. Merida ran to it and followed the Will-of-The-Whisps, again.

She kept running and running until it stopped, leaving her at a dead end. She sighed and leaned on the rock covered with vines until she realised that it isn't a rock. She fell on her back and when she looked up, she saw a tower.

Merida stood up and realised that it isn't just a tower, it was Rapunzel's old tower. Yup, she would know because just like Flynn, who loved to tell stories, Rapunzel also told the tale about her being locked up the tower, about how a thief comes in and they venture to the floating lights, about this 'Mother Gothel' person, and the whole lost princess thing, and how she healed Flynn with the tear.

Merida walked to it and took two arrows from her quiver. She climbed the tower using those arrows because the rocks on the tower are smooth and she might fall.

She eventually got to the top, then she looked around. Oh, everything looked exactly like Rapunzel described it. The mirror is still broken, every inch of the walls are filled with paintings, and there is blood at some part of the floor. This made Merida cringe in disgust.

She cautiously went up the stairs and saw Rapunzel's old bedroom, the bed isn't fixed and a little purple cloth with a sun sowed to it lied on the floor. Merida noticed that it's dark already so she went out of the bedroom, but once she parted the curtain, she saw that someone is standing by the window, hands behind his back and is wearing dark colours.

Merida got frightened a bit because, he wasn't there when she climbed this tower! She got more scared when he turned around. And Merida saw his features, scary indeed.

"Princess Merida." he greeted, she got surprised he knew her name so she took an arrow, fixed it with her bow, and pointed at him.

"Who are you?" she said.

"Now now, dear, that's a bit rude. Pointing an arrow to me, you don't even know who I am!" he said so calmly, so calm that it seemed scarier.

"I… I would've if you told me." she said, not taking off her aim as he walked closer.

"My name, love, is Pitch Black." he said, smiling for he knew Merida is already afraid.

"What do you want?"

"Something I longed for a long time ago," he said, "Revenge."

Merida then shot and arrow to him but it flew past him. Merida ran to the window and was about to climb down but she grew terrified when she saw what awaits her outside, those horse-shaped shadows. They're everywhere, slithering up the entire tower, standing close to it—she couldn't take her eyes off of them! Until one held onto her. She struggled but what used to be a horse turned into a rope, and it's so tight on her hands.

Another shadow appeared and pushed her back inside, now she's lying on the floor with Pitch staring down at her.

"What… What are these things?" she said.

"Those are nightmares, they can sense fear." Pitch said lethargically.

"But… But I'm not afraid." Merida lied, Pitch laughed.

"Then what are they doing here?" he asked her rhetorically before trying to take the bow and quiver off of her. She tried not for him to take it away but he did it successfully.

Pitch dragged her back and chained her to a corner. Merida struggled to get out but it's no use. Pitch took out more of the black sand he has and formed another deadly looking horse.

"Now," he said, looking into it's eyes (if it did have eyes), "I want you to tell those 'guardians', that I'm back."

Merida looked at him wide-eyed, and then to that horse who disappeared.

Jack flew back to the castle later when it's already dark at night. He flew to the window of the room where Rapunzel was painting something she won't tell him about. Up until now, they're all unfinished, she drew five bodies and a huge thing at their back. He walked inside, trailing ice behind him.

Inside the sitting room, he saw Flynn holding a purple book, reading to the triplets, Rapunzel inside the kitchen, and Hiccup eating the what seems to be roasted fish, and Toothless by the balcony window, where he first met Punzie and Flynn, eating fish as well.

"Hey guys." he greeted and they all looked at him, Rapunzel went up to him worried along with Hiccup and Toothless.

"Have you seen Merida?" she asked worriedly.

"No, she hasn't come back yet?" he replied, a bit angry at Merida yet at the same time concerned.

"She hasn't!" Hiccup shouted, they all messed up their hair out of worry.

"Where could she be?!" Rapunzel yelled, Flynn saw their problem and walked up to them.

"How about this, Rapunzel, you stay here with the triplets. Hiccup, Toothless, Jack and I will search for Merida." he said, Rapunzel nodded hesitantly and walked over to the boys.

Hiccup climbed onto Toothless and they flew downwards, Flynn ran down the stairs and outside to go to Maximus, and Jack, he flew off.

Once they were all in one place (which is outside) they all asked each other on what the other thinks where Merida is. Jack said that she's probably in the forest so he suggests they go there.

While looking for Merida, Jack kept muttering.

"I told a thousand times. Just because she does that at home doesn't mean she can do it here. And did she listen? No. All she says is I'm not her mum. All she says is that my opinion doesn't matter. All she says is—"

"You know, Jack, she might've listened to you if you weren't mean to her on the first—second time you two met." Hiccup said as he rolled his eyes while on Toothless.

Jack looked at Hiccup incredulously, "So now it's my fault?"

The four (Flynn, Maximus, Hiccup, Toothless) didn't answer.

"Well why didn't you tell her then?" he asked them, annoyed, looking up, he saw Manny, the man the moon shine, saying something but he doesn't know what.

"Because we—"

"No, no, shh." he hushed Hiccup, who was about to answer. Jack looked at the Moon.

His eyes widened, "I need to go to the North Pole, now."

Hiccup's and Flynn's eyebrows knitted together.

"How?" Flynn asked.

"With this." Jack said, taking out one of those crystal balls North always brings. He threw it and a big, shining portal appeared.

"U-Uh…" Hiccup and Flynn said.

"Just continue looking for Merida, okay? I'll be right back." Jack said as he flew into the portal, not even allowing Flynn and Hiccup to say anything.

Once he was gone, Hiccup, Toothless, Flynn and Maximus seemed to be a bit angry.

"Well that was kind of him." Flynn said sarcastically, Max nodded.

"You tell me." Hiccup said, "Now come on. I'll fly high and you travel ride low. Maybe if we split up, we'll find her faster."

"Yeah, yeah." Flynn said before riding Max forward. Hiccup and Toothless flew higher and higher. They continued to look for Merida, without Jack with them.


	5. Chapter 5

Jack went to the North Pole, inside Santa's Workshop. And there they were, North, Tooth, Sandy, and Bunny, all waiting for him, the roof of the what seems to be a dome shaped workshop is open, revealing the moon, shining bright.

"Jack, Manny said that there is danger..." North said in his Russian accent, the rest of the three nodded. Jack looked at him, waiting for him to continue, but he didn't.

"Well? What is it?!" he shouted worrily, he thought it has something to do with Merida missing, I mean, who would think it was just a coincidence?

"That's the thing, Jack. He won't tell us because we aren't complete." Tooth said.

"Well I'm here now so tell me!"

Tooth looked at Jack and then to Manny, she can speak any language so she can basically understand what the man on the moon says. North, Bunnymund, and Sandman looked at her, eagerly waiting for her to translate what Manny is saying.

"He... He says that-" then her face turned pale, "Pitch is back."

Jack's eyes darkened and he felt angry. Just the sound of Pitch returning means that Merida is with him, and possibly if she's with him, he might go after the others as well. His grip to his staff grew tightened and the four noticed.

"Jack, what happened?" North asked, Bunny looked at Jack and saw that he got angry.

"Yeah, mate." Bunny said, "What happened?"

"I have a feeling Pitch has Merida." he said, Tooth, Bunny, Sandy, and North got confused.

"Merida? I thought you were only hanging out with Rapunzel and Flynn?" Tooth said.

"Well I forgot to tell you that I met three other people. I'll tell you some other time but for now, we should go find Pitch. I'm gonna kill that son of a-"

"Jack." Tooth cut him off, he was getting really angry.

"What?!" he shouted and all of them flinched.

"Don't cuss." she said calmly. Jack rolled his eyes and faced North.

"Let's ride the sleigh and look for her-him!" he said, "And protect the others."

The sleigh, pulled by reindeers entered. Jack flew into it as the others stared at him, a bit surprised he was this determined to find a friend. Well, friends are one of the best things in the world.

"Well? Go on in!" he said, Jack is angry. At who? It could be at Pitch for taking Merida, at Merida for not listening to him, or maybe at himself for not convincing her enough that the forest is dangerous.

The other guardians looked at each other before hurrying into the sleigh themselves. North pulled on the ropes and the reindeers neighed, sooner or later, they flew off. Nobody talked, they all know Jack is in a bad mood and who know what he can do if they annoyed him.

Merida is still trapped inside that tower, Pitch placed a rope on her mouth so she couldn't shout, or cry for help. He also replaced the rope on her hands with the chain Mother Gothel chained Flynn with. She kept struggling and/or looking around to find something she can use as a key to the chain, but so far, nothing. Pitch soon returned, his hands still kept behind his back.

"Merida, do you know why I kept you here like that blonde friend of yours, Rapunzel?" he asked her, Merida only looked at him, knowing that he'll answer that question even if she said that she does know why.

She said something but he couldn't understand because the rope is still on her mouth. He sighed while looking at the ceiling, which is still filled with paintings, and took the rope off.

Merida breathed heavily and then looked at him, "No."

"I kept you here because you're friends with them." he said, Merida narrowed her eyes.

"Friends with who, exactly?" she said, being careful not to give away anyone's names in particular.

"Hiccup Haddock, Rapunzel and Eugene Fitzherbert, and Jack Frost." he said.

"How would you know?" she asked, getting annoyed.

"I just do." he said, smiling a bit. Merida now forgot all about her fear and felt absolutely irritated with Pitch Black. The feeling is mutual though.

The next thing she knew, all those things Pitch called 'nightmares' are beginning to disappear. Merida got curious and so was Pitch, but even though all the nightmares are gone, Merida is still chained. Pitch shut his eyes tight and made a big sigh.

"What just happened? Why did those things vanish?" she asked, sort of curiously.

"You aren't afraid," Pitch gritted through his teeth, still keeping his eyes closed, "aren't you?

Merida smirked, "No, I'm still scared, it is quite obvious since those nightmares are still here." she said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up." he said, before wondering why she isn't scared anymore.

"If you are wondering, I feel annoyed instead of scared right now." she smiled, Oh Merida.

"Well, you're still here. Once they know where you are, they will come after you, and that is when I'll trap them in." he explained the plan further.

"So, I'm just a... bait?"

"Exactly."

Merida honestly didn't know how to feel. Well, her friends are smart enough to know that she's the bait. But how else will she escape? The key to the chain along with her bow and arrows are missing. Well at least she isn't afraid anymore, albeit she did feel annoyed towards Pitch. Why don't you look at that, he left! Through the window he made some sort of black chariot, went inside it, and rode off. That annoying little bast-

Hiccup, Toothless, Flynn and Maximus have been searching for hours now. To be honest, it's almost three in the morning. All were exhausted. They decided to go back home, it was quite strange how Toothless and Hiccup never saw the tower, maybe they went in a different direction?

Flynn and Maximus went back to the castle, Hiccup and Toothless went home at Berk. Rapunzel sat in the chair, sleeping. The triplets are sleeping too on the sofa and the fire by the fireplace is still warm. Flynn walked in, he sighed wearily and lazily sat on another chair as if he was carrying a ton of bricks and he had to bring them down at some point.

Rapunzel got woken up and saw Flynn.

"Eugene, did you find her?" she asked, still worried. He looked at her sadly, knowing that she won't like the answer.

"No, we... we didn't find her." he sighed, Rapunzel is starting to get a head ache out of worry.

"Well, we'll look tomorrow-and yes, I'll come-the triplets can stay here for now, and Gosh, I hope Merida's okay." she said.

Once Toothless is inside the house, Hiccup went out to drink or eat anything to get his mind off of things. Sure, they trust Merida to take care of herself and the fact she's a skilled archer, proves that she can handle herself in a way... Yet, why is she still missing? Hiccup took another sip in his drink which is actually hot chocolate-since, in Berk, it snows for nine months and hails at the other three-basically, it's cold. He sat down on a chair when someone gently punched his shoulder from the back.

He got startled.

"That's..." the voice said, "for scaring me." only one person has that voice, and it is his girlfriend, Astrid Hofferson.

"Oh hey, Astrid." Hiccup greeted, Astrid sat on the chair beside him. She also drank a cup of hot chocolate. But even though they're drinking hot choco, and are wearing a thick coat, the door to that little hut where Hiccup sometimes invents machinery is still open, so the cold breeze entered and they still shivered.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing, it's... it's nothing." he said, before regretting it and started telling her the problem.

"So, Merida went riding and never went home, Jack went to the North Pole because 'The Man on the Moon' told him to, and all of your guesses are: Merida is in danger and Jack has a secret crush on her?" she asked, gathering up all the information.

"I didn't say Jack has a secret crush on her." Hiccup narrowed his eyes at Astrid, who shrugged.

"Yeah, you didn't. I just assumed, well why wouldn't I? From all those actions you described of him, I'd assume he has a crush on her." she smiled, showing all those pearly whites. Hiccup only smiled-laughed while looking down to the cup on his hands.

"Of course, you'd assume." he said.

"Hey, can I help?"

"What do you mean?"

"Help, help find Merida. I mean, me, Stormfly, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut..."

"Sure. But not now, we don't even know who took Merida."

"You're right, so we set off tomorrow, then? At dawn?" she suggested.

"Yeah, sure. Well, let's all hope we find her tomorrow. I'm off to bed." Hiccup said, standing up.

"Uh, me too. Good night, Hiccup." she said.

"Good night." and they went to bed.

The five guardians are still on that awesome sleigh, they've been going around the world for quite some time now. But they weren't actually looking for anybody. Jack is just sitting there, Bunny and Tooth are talking, Sandy is looking from below, and North is driving-if that's what you call it... Tooth would sometimes take the teeth underneath the pillows of children sleeping, and Sandy would sometimes make the children have good dreams. They stopped at Bunny's warren.

"Well, have any of know what Pitch could be up to?" North said.

"I don't know, mate..." Bunny said, looking at the boomerang on his paws.

"I think it has something to do with his last issue, to be believed in." Tooth said, Sandy nodded in agreement. Jack thought otherwise.

"I don't think so." he said, then drew attention. He stood up from a rock and leaned onto his staff, "Because, if that's his plan then why didn't he spread nightmares? He just... stayed in one corner."

The others somehow thought Jack is right. They rubbed their chins, pondering on what Pitch is really up to. Sandy then formed a light bulb out of sand over his head and now all the attention is on him.

He made multiple images, but slowly so the other Guardians can catch up. The first is Pitch, and the spreading of nightmares, and then they defeated him, and then a new image brought up of Pitch rising from the hole near Jack's pond in Burgess. Nobody quite understood it as clearly as they were supposed to, but Tooth did.

"I think he says that Pitch came back for revenge..." she paused, "...on Jack."


	6. Chapter 6

Jack somewhat thought that Merida is with Pitch, but for revenge on them. He somehow knew that Pitch's plot is more complicated than it seems. I mean, why would he take Merida? Of course, so that he and the others will go after her since they're guardians. But Hiccup, Rapunzel, Flynn and Toothless will go after her too. If Pitch knew about Merida then he's sure to know about the others. But why them?

"Jack, what do you think?" North asked, Sandy nodded.

"I'm sorry, what?" he replied, he was too busy in thought to even know that the other guardians were talking.

"I asked you what you think Pitch is up to, you know, for his vengence." North shrugged.

"Uh, I think he has one of my friends as a bait." he said with his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowed, and his head bowing down with two fingers placed on his chin.

"This 'Merida' person, I suppose?" Bunny said.

"You got that one right, Bunny." Jack replied, pointing over to Bunny who leaned on a rock.

"Bunny—? Oh my gosh, _the_ Jack Frost called me Bunny instead of Kangaroo! Someone call the police officers! WEE-OOH-WEE-OOH-WEE-OOH!" he kept on shouting, Tooth and the others laughed at him, including Jack.

"Aww, Jackie smiled again." Tooth said, Sandy grinned with all his teeth showing and Jack, he only laughed at the ground because of all people, it had to be Bunny who made an attempt to make him smile.

"Come on, it's like three in the morning here, we could all use a little rest." North said, Jack nodded. He flew back to Corona as the others went to where they stayed at.

In Corona, it's around six in the afternoon. Jack didn't feel tired at all, not one bit. Lucky he isn't in a bad mood anymore, though. Rapunzel was with Flynn, they were talking with Hiccup and some other blonde girl. The triplets are gone, Jack flew to the other balcony where it led you to the room where Punzel was painting.

"Hey," he greeted, the others were stunned and walked to him. Flynn and Hiccup were surprised too, but it's mixed with crossness. Probably because Jack left them in the middle of the forest when it's almost dark.

"Hello, Jack." Rapunzel said, "Why'd you leave these two yesterday?"

"Oh, sorry 'bout that." he laughed nervously, looking at Flynn and Hiccup, "Manny just told me that I was needed in the North Pole."

"Oh, it's okay I guess." Hiccup said, he wouldn't be angry, what if it was an emergency, right?

"Well, now that that is the end of it, what do you all say we look for Merida?" Rapunzel asked them.

"I don't know, Punz, I'm tired. Hamish, Hubert and Harris have kept me up all night." Flynn sighed.

"And speaking of the triplets, where are they?" Jack asked.

"Oh, Hiccup and Toothless came by night and flew them back to their castle." Rapunzel explained.

"You all have _no idea_ how terrifying Merida's mom is." Hiccup said, emphasizing the 'no idea' bit.

"Why?" Jack said.

"So I went to their home to bring back the triplets, her mom was the first to see me and she instantly assumed I kidnapped her children. I explained to her that I was bringing them home from Corona, she didn't believe me at first because Merida isn't with me. So then we had to play twenty questions on who I am, what I am to Merida, and where she is." Hiccup explained, Astrid chuckled.

"So what did you say to where Merida was?"

"I told her she was spending the night with you guys. She'd probably throw me to the alligators if she found out Merida is kidnapped." he said, way over reacting if you ask me.

"Hiccup, I don't think they would have alligators." Jack said, he doesn't think, he _knows_.

"How'd you know?"

"Because I spread snow all over the world, I know about Scotland." he said in an 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone. Which was quite true, except for the part he doesn't know that Merida is royalty, that little secret she doesn't want anyone to know. Hiccup just got lucky.

"Oh come on, when are we going to continue looking for her?" Rapunzel said.

"Now." Astrid said.

"Meh, I don't want to. Us guardians have been searching for hours." Jack said.

"Oh come on, isn't she your friend?" Astrid asked him.

"Excuse me, and you are?"

"I'm Astrid, Hiccup's girlfriend." she said.

Jack looked at her with bored eyes, and then to Hiccup, "Good luck on her, Hic."

This drove Astrid furious, but she didn't let it out, they were supposed to find Merida. Her possible arguesment with Jack won't help.

"Okay, we're looking for Merida." Rapunzel announced, Jack whined. "Whether you like it or not." she faced Jack while saying this.

"But—" Flynn was about to whine.

"Except you, Eugene. You've literally been up all night." she said sweetly. Flynn smiled at her warmly and promised to himself he'll help next time. Jack gave Rapunzel the 'What-the-Heck?!' look.

"What?! Punzie, that is so unfair!"

"Hush, Jack. You're coming." Rapunzel said gladly, she always enjoyed teasing Jack. But he never teased her back, he knew that if he did, she wouldn't give him those cookies anymore. "And—uh, don't say 'that is so unfair' again, you're starting to sound like Merida."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Well okay, should I call the others?" Astrid asked.

"I don't think so, blondie." Jack said.

"Why not?" Hiccup asked him as Astrid was turning red from all the anger.

"It's Pitch we're dealing here, we should at least know first what he has. If we charge already, we might loose a lot of men." Jack explained.

"That made sense, but who's Pitch?" Hiccup asked.

Jack explained to all of them about Pitch, he's the Boogeyman who creates nightmares, he's the source of fear. He also explained to them that a couple of months ago, Pitch wanted to be believed in, so he once took revenge.

"I'll call him Revenge Man." Rapunzel shrugged, and they all looked at her weirdly. "What?" she asked.

"Revenge man?" Flynn asked.

"Well we only hear of him when he takes revenge, it's much better than the first name I thought of, which was Mr. Failure since he always fails." she reasoned, Jack smiled a bit because it's silly…

"So let's go now?" Astrid said.

"Yeah, let's go." Rapunzel said, her hair already braided so that if anything happens, her hair won't get in the way.

Rapunzel, Hiccup and Astrid ran downstairs, Jack lazily flew downwards. He really was tired, but it's like, in the middle of the afternoon in Corona. Once they got down, Hiccup climbed on Toothless and Astrid climbed on Stormfly. Rapunzel looked around.

"Hey, I'm just gonna walk?" she asked.

"Probably." Jack shrugged. Rapunzel glared at him, is Jack this annoying when he's tired?

"You can ride with me, Rapunzel." Hiccup said, Rapunzel smiled at him and climbed behind his back.

"Thank you, Hiccup." she said loud enough for Jack to hear, which he did but did he care?

A few hours before that, when it was still night, Merida shifted uncomfortably on the floor, it was hard for her to sleep. The ground is hard and cold, she's still wearing the dress she wore a day ago. She swore under her breath, something about Pitch being annoying. Then, when she finally had her eyes closed, she saw something.

_"Mor'du." she said in a scared tone. Her mum, still a bear, growled from above and so did Mor'du. She fell on her bum and shot an arrow towards him. Merida shot his chest but it had no effect on him for Mor'du has the strength of ten men._

_She ran through the rocks from the side and shot another arrow at him, she shot directly in the face although the arrow broke. Merida gasped and ran faster. Mor'du ran across the rocks inside the ruin and made them tumble apart. Merida fell again but this time on her stomach. She immidiately stood up, trying to get away from him. Mor'du teared the cape strapped on her dress as she began climbing the rocks all the way up to the hole at the top where her mum was._

_Once she reached high enough, she pulled her hand out as far as she can so her mum can reach. Mor'du was less than five feet behind so she reached further but her mum still couldn't touch it to pull her up. Mor'du will pull her down, so she jumped. Jumped as high as she can so her mum can grab her hand and pull her up._

_But her finger tips only brushed passed her mum's paw, and so she fell to her doom._

_Mor'du ran towards her, he had his paws around her and growled at her face. Merida had nothing to do, or where to go. She screamed so loud but it didn't help her, Mor'du opened his mouth real wide and neared it to her face. He's about to eat her whole while she kept screaming when—_

"Aaaahhh!" she shouted, and then woke up. After that, she chanted over and over again, "It's just a dream, just a dream."

Not knowing Pitch was above, smiling to himself, "Oh, how I missed doing this."

In the present time, the six have reached the middle of the forest.

"Come on, Rapunzel!" Jack whined.

"Will you stop—" Rapunzel was about to nag at Jack again, when Hiccup cut her.

"Hey. Look at that." he said, staring at something while pointing at it. They all turned towards where he was looking at, and there they saw a wisp.

All became quiet and flew towards it. But then it disappeared and a few others appeared behind it. They all seemed to be in a trance as they followed it.

It led them to a place deeper in the forest. They found out about the curtain of vines through Rapunzel, who wondered why it would lead them there. They all set on foot and walked passed it, and that is where they saw the tower.

"My tower." she whispered in shock.

"_Your _tower?" Jack said.

"Yes, don't you listen to the stories I tell with Eugene?" she replied.

"No." he said directly.

She rolled her eyes. Jack flew slowly up to the window. There, he saw Merida, sitting with her arms crossed. Lucky for him, Merida saw him too.

"Jack!" she whisper-shouted. He showed a little smile and looked at her. He was confused on why she was just sitting there when she could go back home, and so he adjusted himself by the window so he can fly in. Merida noticed and kept whisper-shouting, "No, stop! Don't!"

Jack didn't understand why she didn't want him to go in, but he soon did when she showed him the chain on her wrists and as Jack was still staring at the chain, Pitch walked in. So he flew out and lower so Pitch wouldn't see him.

Merida looked at Pitch, "What?"

"Nothing, did you have a good sleep?"

"No."

"Good." he replied, Merida rolled her eyes. Oh how clueless she is that Pitch caused those nightmares. Lucky for Merida, she decided to put it all back for she knew that Mor'du is dead.

Jack flew down really quickly and ran to the others with his staff still held by his hand.

"She's up there." he said.

"Really? Then let's go after her!" Hiccup said.

"No, we need a key or something. She's chained and Pitch is guarding her."


	7. Chapter 7

"She's chained, and Pitch Black is guarding her?" Rapunzel repeated, surprised.

"I just said it, didn't I, Rapunzel?" Jack said.

"Geez, what's got your knickers in a a twist?" Rapunzel's eyebrows knitted at Jack as she said this.

"Nothing, come on. Let's go home and think of our plan of attack." Jack replied, Hiccup and Astrid shrugged as Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. Toothless, Jack and Stormfly flew back to Corona, Rapunzel, Hiccup and Astrid rode the dragons. Once they got back, they saw Flynn pacing all over the castle. He really was worried and he wanted to come along, he was just tired.

"Eugene, we're back." Rapunzel said, Flynn saw and hugged her once she walked from the balcony, where Toothless dropped her off.

"Well did you find her?"

"Fortunately, yes." Hiccup said and Flynn exhaled in relief, "But unfortunately, she isn't with us. She's with Pitch Black."

Flynn's eyes widened, "We must save her! But how?"

"We came here to discuss on how we defeat him." Jack said, Hiccup nodded and so did Astrid.

"Well, I—erm usually think of the plan but since you know who this 'Pitch' person is, you handle this." Hiccup said, patting Jack at the back. What he said about him being the thinker of the group is true. When they're in some sort of complicated situation, Hiccup would be the one who would hatch the idea.

Jack rubbed his chin indicating that he was thinking, "Okay well the way we defeated him back then was by having fun." he stated.

"So we should… have fun around him?" Hiccup said.

"Exactly, and.. do you think we can kill him on the spot?" Jack asked hopefully back to Hiccup.

"I don't know, does he have any other weakness?"

"To be honest, we thought he was gone for good, that he got eaten up by his own fears." Jack said, remembering the memory, "I guess we were wrong."

"Well then let's hope for the best." Hiccup said.

A few seconds later and Hiccup's expression brightened, "I got it!"

Jack's, Rapunzel's, Flynn's, Astrid's, and Toothless' expression got brightened too, they looked at Hiccup eagerly, waiting for him to talk and explain.

"Okay, what if there were more children that had fun near him?" he said.

"More children?"

"Yep, how many kids had fun in the last time?" Hiccup asked.

"About seven." Jack answered.

"Well, let's add more people. Do you think that'd work?" he queried, Jack thought for a while before nodding with a big smile on his face.

"I think it would, but who?"

"How about Merida's brothers? They seem… fun." Rapunzel said.

"Sure, how about we train them?" Astrid said happily, the rest agreed eventually, Pitch might kill any of them so they should be prepared.

Merida is still chained and Pitch is still there, he was still observing her even when Jack left.

"Will you quit looking at me like that?" Merida said, annoyed.

"I would, if you tell me what happened a while ago." Pitch said, who remained staring at her with his arms crossed.

"Nothing happened a while ago, quit being so paranoid." she said, _'Yer starting to be like me mum_, she thought.

"Fine, don't tell me. I'll just leave then." he said, Merida's eyes narrowed. She hates Pitch, she hated Pitch much more than she hates Jack. Well she doesn't really hate Jack, she just thinks that she does.

She wanted to get him and rip him open. Pitch knew that Merida wanted food, she wanted food _now_ but no, he just chose to leave her. That jerk.

Merida was about to strangle him, but she can't since she has chains on her hands. Pitch left, Merida stood up and walked towards the big window, she almost reached it but the chain wasn't that long. She stared into the sky, now dark and filled with stars. She then wished a way to save herself.

A little while later and she thought of sleeping. So she fixed herself on the floor. It's cold every night, so she rubbed her hands on her arms. Then she slept.

Her eyes are tight shut, she's in a room so dark she can't even see anything. Then she heard footsteps. Merida realised she has her bow and arrows with her so she took an arrow and fixed it with her bow. She pointed anywhere and kept spinning. The footsteps grew louder. She turned right and a scary looking, black horse appeared, startling her.

She woke up.

Right after Hamish, Hubert, Harris, Jamie, Cupcake, Pippa, Claude, Caleb, and Monty have been trained how to ride a dragon by Hiccup and Astrid, they all settled of learning self defence with Astrid tomorrow. The nine children walked back into the main room, tired.

"This is the most tiring day ever." Jamie Bennett sighed as he threw himself to the sofa and lied down there. Rapunzel saw and sat beside him.

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad." she said.

"That's what you think, Miss." Jamie replied, Rapunzel chuckled.

"Jamie, call me Rapunzel." she said, "And we train you so that you won't die when you fight Pitch."

"But we already defeated Pitch before, what difference does it make for now?"

"Now is different because Pitch could possibly be stronger. The least we should have you do is to be prepared in case he has any surprises." she explained, Jamie nodded.

Jack was behind, watching the two. He was glad Rapunzel and Jamie get along. He saw her lead Jamie to the room she last painted and he followed. Once they got to the room, he saw that the painting was almost finished, he saw that it was a painting of him, Merida, Toothless, Hiccup, Rapunzel, and Flynn.

"You see that?" she said, crouching to Jamie's size and pointing to the wall.

"Did you draw that?" he asked, amazed.

"Yup. I usually do this alone but, wanna help me finish it?"

"Sure." he said gladly. Rapunzel smiled and left the room, then returned with a box full of paint and brushes.

Jack spent the next hour watching them finish the painting. It turned out pretty good, but then he felt bored. He flew out and decided to check on Merida (yes, he can do that) just in case Pitch does something.

A little while later and he got lost, he forgot where the tower was. He could have sworn he went in the right directions and the right ways. But he just couldn't find it. He groaned in annoyance as he ran his fingers threw his hair. Until he heard singing.

He followed the voice and it led him to the tower. He was really happy and when he flew closer, he saw that it was Merida singing! But he didn't understand what language it was.

She was crouching and her hands are still behind her back. Her eyes are gently shut but he can tell that she was afraid. He looked around while she was singing, there is no sign of Pitch anywhere.

_A naoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth  
Mise ri d' thaobh, O mhaighdean bhan  
Ar righinn oig, fas as faic  
Do thir, dileas fhein  
A ghrian a's a ghealaich, stuir sinn  
Gu uair ar cliu 's ar gloire  
Naoidhean bhig, ar righinn og  
Mhaighdean uashaill bhan_

After singing that twice, she sighed. She missed her mother, her father, her brothers, her friends… Heck, she even missed Jack. A tear was about to fall when she heard something bump from outside. She decided to look around, find a weapon or anything. But nothing is near her! Only a black frying pan!

"You've got to be kidding me." she sighed but took the pan anyway. She raised it up and walked towards the window. She went far enough but nothing, all she sees is the moon.

Jack saw that Merida heard him hit the wall. He saw her walking nearer with that frying pan in her hand. He resisted a laugh, she looked funny holding a frying pan for defence. He flew from above the window and as Merida reached the furthest with the chain still by her wrists…

"Boo!"

"Ahh!" Merida shouted and threw the frying pan to the one who frightened her.

"OW!" Jack said, rubbing his head that now has a red mark, "For a girl, you sure do have good aim."

Merida squinted her eyes, and there she finally saw Jack.

"Jack!" she said happily, Jack gave her the 'Ya think?' look. "I'm so sorry I just… I just thought that you were… were…" she was so worried and scared, Jack looked around and saw no nightmare flew inside.

He hugged her tight and she hugged back. They stayed like that under the moonlight for what seemed like hours. Jack having his arms around her and her arms around him…

But then the moment ended when a strange grumbling noise was heard. They pulled away. Jack looked at her weirdly, "What was that?"

"Hey, don't look at me like that, Pitch never feeds me I haven't eaten in two days." she said, and a louder grumble was heard.

"Sheesh, I'll get you food." Jack said as he walked towards the window.

"Bring back something to cut this chain too. I'd love to get out now, please." Merida said, Jack nodded and left.

_Maybe I could get her out now? The others won't have to work. I can do it alone._ Jack thought, he went back to the kingdom. He went in a bakery and took a stash of cookies and a slice of pie and placed it in a paper bag he also took. Next, he went to a blacksmith's house, he took one of the swords in there and brought it with him. It was a bit heavy but he can manage.

Merida stayed there, the feeling of her stomach was as if it had butterflies in it… and the other part is that it hurts so much. She looked at the stairs and saw that Pitch wasn't there at all, they were in luck. Merida wished for Jack to hurry since Pitch might come back any second.

Jack returned, carrying the sword and paper bag full of cookies with him. Merida smiled brightly and helped him. But instead of the sword, she took the cookies, Jack gave her the 'are you serious' face but dropped the sword gently on the ground.

Merida began eating the sweets as if it's the last day of her life… with her mouth only. Jack kept looking at her strangely.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing." Jack said with both of his eyebrows raised. Merida shrugged before wiping away the crumbs off her face through her shoulder. She took the sword.

"You cut it as I pull the chain back, okay?" she said to Jack.

"Yep." he replied. Merida pulled the chain as far as she can and Jack raised the sword high to cut it.

"Hurry up! Pitch might come back." Merida said to Jack.

"Alright, alright." he said, before dropping the sword. It didn't cut through the chain.

"Hit it harder!"

Jack rolled his eyes and raised the sword, then swiped it through the chain.

It cut into two pieces! You see, the chain broke but Merida's hands are still together. Jack saw and knew he had to cut it somehow. But Merida thought it wasn't that necessary.

"No, we'll find someone else. We have to go now." she said, Jack agreed and they ran to the window. Jack thought about carrying Merida instead, since she can't go on his back for her hands are chained.

"Come on." Jack said, he held her arm and Merida didn't know what he was planning to do.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to have to hold your arms." he said, her eyes widened.

"You… You didn't call Hiccup or Toothless?" she said.

"Oh what difference does it make, we need to get out." he said, but she persisted.

"Merida, now is not the time to be stubborn. You can trust me." he said.

"Why should I? Back then, you almost dropped me!" she shouted, which was true. Back when they were arguing about who gets to eat the last cookie, Jack took her by the arms and flew her around. Until she began to slip. She _did_ in fact drop but he caught her before she crashed.

"But I caught you, come on now, Merida. You rode Toothless, what difference does it make if I carry you?"

"Toothless won't drop me." she retorted. Jack gave her the look, "Oh fine!"

Jack took her arms and as they were about to fly out, the moonlight was hid behind something black.

The fears returned, Pitch has returned.

"Oh, for Thor's sake!" Merida shouted as she nudged Jack. He, moving almost as if it was instinct, took her arms and flew out. But more nightmares came and they tried to take Jack inside. Flying out was difficult, it felt as if you're running in a sea of people in a marketplace, everyone is either beside you, in front of you, or behind you. They keep bumping onto you until you can't get out.

Jack held Merida through one hand as for the other, he took his staff and shot ice onto the nightmares. Some froze, but there are still many more after them. Jack flew out, Merida still with him. The nightmares keep on pulling and/or attacking. They pulled on Merida's feet. She kicked and kicked, trying to let them go but they won't.

His hold on her began to slip.

"Oh no." he gasped, he took her by the other hand and tried to pull her.

But the nightmares' pull was strong. In the end, Jack flew with great force out of the tower and down on the ground as Merida got back inside. She stood up and ran towards the window but the nightmares kept getting in the way.

"Jack!" she shouted as loud as she can, then muttered, "If only I had my bow."

On Jack's side, he stood up and saw that the tower swarming with nightmares. He's about to fly up when he heard someone say,

"Well, if it isn't Jack Frost."

It came from a voice he knew all too well.

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**I'm sorry, some sentences are hard to understand... I'm just too lazy to edit the chapters I write**


	8. Chapter 8

"Well, if it isn't Jack Frost."

It came from a voice he knew all too well.

He turned around and saw exactly who he expected to see, Pitch Black. "What do you want, Pitch?" he said in a grimly tone.

"I came here to get back to dear Merida." he answered, smiling. Jack pointed his staff at him, his hands shaking a bit but her forced them to stop.

"I'm not afraid of you." he said, Pitch laughed that creepy laugh of his.

"But you are afraid of something, of course, that would explain them still being here." Pitch said, gesturing the nightmares, "We both know Merida isn't afraid, so who else would it be?"

Jack didn't move a bit, he didn't know what Pitch was saying. He is after all stating the truth about not being afraid… of Pitch. He looked down at the grass and his eyebrows furrowed.

"You're afraid of losing her…" Pitch said, "… them."

Jack looked up, "Them?"

"Merida, that blonde girl, and that puny viking." he said.

"Hiccup isn't puny." he defended, "and her name's Rapunzel."

"Saying that won't help, Jack." Pitch stated. Jack looked at him straight in the eye this time.

"What do you mean?"

"I have plans, Jack." he said.

Merida tried to fight with the nightmares but it was no use, what they are… they're like smoke. Transparent-like. Right behind the tower, something begins to build up.

A few Nightmares flying above fell to the grass like syrup on the pancakes for breakfast, they appeared like shadows and slithered way to the back like snakes. Once they reached one corner, they begin to build up into something, something big.

"You have plans on what?" Jack said to Pitch, he was about to shoot ice at him, but Pitch needs to finish first.

"I have plans for your lovely friends." he replied.

It appeared almost as if there is something solid at the bottom and paint is being spilled at the top to cover it. Except, they're black Nightmares, and they come from the bottom up to the top. What they formed are two circles and a connectore between them, it became a body and a head with a long neck. Next are four big forms of darkness that go at the sides for arms and legs.

A few seconds later, the what appeared to be a sculpture, with black smoke coming from its sides, became more and more detailed. A few finishing touches and the first form is complete, it's a dragon.

"What do you plan on doing to them?" Jack said.

"If I told you then that wouldn't be so fun, wouldn't it, Jackie?"

Jack breathed out in anger. He flew up and shot a long beam-like form of ice towards Pitch, who created a few gestures with his hands and then formed a black shield that stopped the ice Jack has sent.

Ice and darkness together looked beautiful in a way, it looked like a sculpture. Jack and Pitch walked towards it. It created a swirling design with blue-ish white and black in it.

"Oh, alright. I'll tell you." Pitch rolled his eyes, "For Hiccup, I plan on killing him with a dragon."

Jack shot another ice-beam towards Pitch out of anger, but he quickly dodged it as he disappeared.

Much more Nightmares and shadows flew to the back. But this 'sculpture' didn't need as much Nightmares as the dragon. The only thing it made were two human-like forms. They appeared like twins, and both had big and muscular bodies. The two began to move. Their arms and legs moved in a graceful manner. But once they raised those hands, the fingers slowly began to grow longer.

They kept growing until it reached around eight inches, then it begins to stiffen. The twins moved their fingers and—_*snip!*_ Their fingers are blades, making their hands scissors. Deadly and dark looking scissors that can cut anything.

Pitch re-appeared behind Jack, "For Rapunzel, I plan on cutting her hair and plunging her heart with a strong blade."

Jack faced his enemy and tried to use his staff as a long stick to hit Pitch with. He swiped it in the air and successfully knocked Pitch to the ground on his bum. Pitch stood up quickly and formed a big wave of shadows. He threw them to Jack who held his staff up high as a shield.

The shadows didn't get to him but he did fall on his back. Jack stood up quickly, he faced Pitch with a glare.

"Oh, you're sad all of your friends are going to die?" Pitch said, Jack didn't answer.

"Your friends, all of them are weirdos anyway. Why do you care for them? They will die sooner or later anyway, you're immortal and they aren't." he continued, Jack breathed heavily in and out.

"I don't care." That was a lie.

"What ever you say, Frost." Pitch shrugged then continued discussing his plan as Jack and him kept going in circles, always facing each other, seeing if anyone was about to attack.

"For Merida,"

Merida, she never stopped trying to get out. The chain on her wrists mad eher hands about ten inches apart. She tried to cut it with the sword, but it's difficult.

Behind the tower, something knew was forming. You can't really see it, there is smoke everywhere. The Nightmares neighed and ran until they jarred together and made a huge splash. But it isn't quite over, they are forming into something.

"What do you plan on her?"

"Ah, you do care!" Pitch said, "I plan on something a bit different."

Three oddly shaped shadows stacked onto each other and then got molded into something… The shadows are wobbling until it got bigger and bigger.

"Well, I plan on making her go to my side."

"She wouldn't."

"Which is why I have a plan B."

It got taller and wider, until it reached at least ten feet tall. It's not finished yet, a few more Nightmares joined the big one and they were formed into…. a bear.

"Plan B?"

"Yes, Jack. Plan B is simple, let Merida join the dark side, or kill her." he said grimly.

Jack was fuming with anger, he might explode! He flew quickly to Pitch and shot the ice as strong as he can to Pitch. The Boogeyman, on the other hand, formed another of his ever-so-famous shields. It stopped the ice again.

"Jack, don't hurt yourself. Your friends are in great danger. Protect them now, before I can get to them." Pitch said.

He stared at Pitch, how can he do it so quickly, as in now? He punched Pitch in the face just like Tooth did and flew away. He vowed to return, to rescue Merida, and to protect the others.

He is after all, a guardian.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you all so much for the positive feedback :D Here's another update, I hope you like it... you probably won't... maybe you will, anyway, enjoy :D**

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Jack hesitantly left Merida locked inside that horrid tower (yet again). He flew back to the castle to make sure Rapunzel, Flynn, and the others are safe. He promised to return to Merida, he'll just look out for the others first.

Once he flew to the quiet palace, through the balcony. Everyone was sleeping when he checked the rooms. Harris, Hubert and Hamish peacefully slept in Rapunzel's arms. Flynn slept at a couch-like bed beside the window because there isn't much space left on the real bed. Poor Flynn, Jack thought.

"The other children are gone..." Jack said to himself. He figured that Rapunzel told Hiccup the addresses Jack told her on where Jamie and the others lived, and Hiccup and Astrid must've brought them home.

Jack stayed on the balcony, he thought to guard Punzie and Flynn there. If you watch or see him, sitting on the rail with his feet dangling and his hood pulled up with his staff tightly gripped by his hands, you can catch him taking glances at the Man on the Moon. He kept giving Manny begging stares. He didn't know what to do at all, and he sighed at that.

When you ask Manny a question, he doesn't answer you. But he does give you clues so you can answer the problem yourself. That is what he intended on Jack, who asked him for a solution to this problem.

Merida kept fighting the nightmares with the sword she had until she got very tired. So tired that she dropped the sword and her mouth gaped for air. A bad choice it was, even though it was the only one she had.

Once she held onto her knees and took big breaths, the nightmares-a lot of them-attacked her all at once! Merida tried once more to keep them away but she was too tired and the nightmares are so bloody damn too many!

An hour must've passed and she's in chains again, the sword is thrown out of the window and Pitch is standing in front of her, walking from left to right and right to left, telling her-nagging her, I mean, on how she never should have done that. The reason because her friends are now in danger as well.

Merida was at first annoyed, like us, children, the way we feel when our parents scold us and they repeat those subjects over and over again... That emotion then switched to worry and anger. Merida cared for her friends, just as much as Jack does. Boy, if Pitch does something to them, when she escapes from that chain, she's going to have Pitch run for his life, chased by his fears once again.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is riding on Toothless high above the clouds and Astrid is on Stormfly. Jamie rode with Astrid and Sofie rode with Hiccup. They stopped right in front of the house where they lived. Hiccup carried Jamie and Sofie down and walked them to their front porch. Astrid and the dragons hid well in the dark above.

Once Jamie is back inside with a sleeping Sofie in his arms, Astrid, Stormfly, and Toothless flew lower and accompanied Hiccup. The three of them, not really counting in Stormfly, admired the 'village' Jamie lived in. Oh, how modern everything was.

"Good thing Berk isn't like this," Astrid said, "there's no space for anything."

"Well..." Hiccup said, "At least nothing here will be set on fire."

Astrid shrugged but agreed. Both Toothless and Stormfly grouned loudly, just to let Hiccup and Astrid know that them dragons are tired of flying continously for two hours. Lucky for them, Hiccup noticed.

"Yeah, okay, bud," Hiccup smiled as he patted Toothless, "let's go home."

Astrid climbed on Stormfly and fixed herself, and as Hiccup was climbing on Toothless, they both heard a sound... something that sounded similar to the sound Toothless makes when he's breathing and purring at the same time. It drew their attention and I'll tell you that.

"Hold on." Hiccup told them as he got off Toothless and slowly walked towards where he thought the sound was coming from, behind a certain house. It was quite loud, loud yet low enough for the people in this village to not hear while they're sleeping inside their homes. Hiccup walked towards the house and behind it but all he saw was darkness.

"Hello?" he called, he walked further and further but no one or nothing ever showed up. Hiccup figured to go back since nothing is there anyway, but just as he turned and took the first five steps back, the breathing and purring-ISH sound grew louder. He felt the slow breaths at the back of his neck, this made him get goosebumps... and so he turned around.

There, he saw a dragon.

No, this wasn't like any other dragon Hiccup has seen, it has very strange features. Almost as if most of the dragons at Berk got combined into one. It has the body width of a Grockle but the length is as long as a Timberjack's. The neck is similar looking to a Deadly Nadder's, the spikes on its back are like a Monstrous Nightmare's. The wings are like a Changewing's, and the mouth like a Whispering Death's. Other than that, this dragon is oure black. A colour darker than Toothless'.

It gritted its teeth like Toothless once did when he and Hiccup first got along. The time where he saw Hiccup sketch him on the dirt and he created a little drawing himself using a tree branch. Hiccup accidentally stepped on one of the lines and he gritted his teeth.

Hiccup saw the teeth of this peciliar dragon, just the same as a Boneknapper's, big and sharp, and possibly as strong as a skull. Hiccup saw it open the mouth slightly and saw gas coming out of it. Unlike other dragons, the gas coming from its mouth is black, not green.

Now you see, Hiccup and every other viking knows what happens when gas comes out of a dragon's mouth.

Fire comes next.

So, Hiccup ran for his life.

Astrid wasn't on Stormfly anymore. Toothless is lying down on the pavement, Stormfly is sitting down and Astrid is leaning against her with her arms crossed.

They're all waiting for Hiccup, who was testing their patience for not returning in maybe ten minutes or more. Toothless made a quiet growl stating that he wants to go home.

Astrid groaned and said, "Should I go for him?"

Toothless gave her a tired glare and so she shrugged and walked slowly towards the house.

"Aw, Hiccup... You're lucky I love you." she muttered, then her eyes widened when she found out the dragons heard her, "I said nothing! Nothing at all!"

Then, they heard the sound once more. This made Astrid pause and the dragons' heads shot up. This time, the sound was of a dragon when it shoots fire. Astrid's eyebrows knitted together and her eyes narrowed.

"A... dragon?" she asked, to no one at all. Why would there be a dragon in here? she thought.

The next sound they heard were the manly screams of Hiccup. Astrid knew it was him immediately, she drew a medium sized dagger from a sheath clipped on her skirt and gripped it tightly, waiting for what ever it was the reason Hiccup was shouting.

She waited and all became quiet, "Hiccup!" she called and ran. Hiccup suddenly appeared, running towards them, fire just behind him. He was lucky enough to avoid most of it but the bottom hem of his tunic started to set on fire. He noticed this luckily and had hit it repeatedly until it went out.

Once she saw him, her eyebrows knitted together and her grip on the dagger tightened. Astrid readied herself to fight what ever it was behind Hiccup... but when she saw the fire, she dropped the dagger to the sidewalk. For what she saw, surprised her incredibly.

The fire was black, pure black. Although it probably yad the sane effect as the fire they knew, this was different. Black fire?! Where ever could you see such a thing?

It woke up the people in the neighborhood. At the windows you can see the lights turn on and them opening their curtains. All men, women, and children. You can see them rub their tired, red eyes. Everything was bright and when their vision finally cleared up, that's when their eyes widened at what they saw.

The men gasped, the women screamed in fear (soon, the entire neighborhood echoed in these screams) and the children gaped in awe. Wouldn't you also when you see a dragon for the first time?

"Astrid, let's go!" Hiccup exclaimed as he took Astrid by the wrist and dragged her over to their dragons.

Astrid hopped on and so did Hiccup, she finally saw the dragon breathing the black fire. Astrid was a brave lass, but the sight of this dragon could make anyone shiver in at least a little bit of fear in them. She faced Hiccup immediately as the dragon breathed out firem a huge amount was coming out. A lot like the Greeb Death when it blasted out fire to the vikings' ships. Some of the houses and the grass on their front yards are getting caught on fire!

"We need to leave now." Hiccup said loudly.

"Why now? Their homes! They're on fire!" Astrid shouted to Hiccup, so that he may hear her over the shouts of the people around them.

"I figured this dragon only came after us, we need to get out as quickly as possible." Hiccup instructed, "We should go somewhere deserted and fight it there."

Astrid gave him a single nod and they flew off. "Where?" she asked.

"I don't know yet, let's just go." Hiccup said, Toothless and Stormfly flying as quick as they can, the black dragon just right behind them. The thing's bloody fast!

"The thing's as fast as a Night Fury!" Hiccup gasped, "Come on, Toothless, pretend as if we're racing with the other lads back at home. He's on our tail!"

Toothless nodded and flew quicker than before. Hiccup's face and hair were being pushed by the wind and it looked quite silly. He managed to look behind him at Stormfly and Astrid, then asked them if they can keep up.

"Don't worry! I fed her chicken this morning!" Astrid smirked, her face and hair being pushed by the wind also. Hiccup refused the urge to roll his eyes. Dragon racing was the island's favourite sport at Berk. Toothless and Hiccup are always the lead. Astrid and Stormfly are then becoming faster, the cause is Astrid feeding Stormfly chicken. Fishlegs believed that Stormfly might be quicker than Toothless, but Hiccup refused to believe that. He nodded at Astrid and both the dragons flew faster, maybe quicker than light!

Jack sighed. He played with the railings on the balcony and freezed them. Well, frosted them. He also did the same to the glass windows, then drew bunnies on them, or humming birds, or presents, anything that reminded him of-

"The guardians!" he figured happily with a bit of excitement. Aside from the children who believed in them in the last time, it were the guardians (and him) who defeated Pitch Black.

Jack searched his pocket until he found the snowglobe. He sighed and smiled, but as he was going to whisper where he wanted the globe to take him, he heard the sound of wings-big wings-flapping, he gasped a bit and then he heard great roars. He looked up immediately and saw a Night Fury with his rider, a Deadly Nadder with her rider, a dragon slightly bigger than the two that is coloured black completely, shooting black flames at them, just a few meters away.

He forgot all about going to the other guardians and flew as quick as he can above until he and Hiccup (and Toothless, with Astrid and Stormfly behind the three of them) are righr beside each other.

"Hiccup! What dragon is that behind us?" he shouted, for the wind passing through them cause loud noises.

"I don't know, it's nothing else like I've ever seen." Hiccuo shouted back as a reply, "It breathes black fire though."

"Pitch is behind all this." Jack explained.

"I knew it."

"Where are you going to kill it?"

"I was thinking to the nest." Hiccup said, then faced Toothless, who now knew where to go.

"Alright, -" Jack gasped, "Look out!" he shouted to them all. Once Hiccup looked, all he saw was black fire. Him and Toothles dodged it quickly but also with difficulty.

They were so high above the clouds so, luckily, the fire didn't hit the caslte or any of the houses in the kingdom. The fire blended in with the clouds in the night sky with its darkness. Once this horrid dragon stopped breathing fire, Hiccup and Jack checked on Astrid and Stormfly.

They weren't behind them.

"Astrid?!" Hiccup shouted with fear and worry.

Suddenly, she flew down on Stormfly from the clouds above them, breathing heavily. "I'm here." she said, "Where to? Tell me now, Hic." she demanded.

"To the old nest." he answered, Jack was still clueless on where this so-called 'nest' was, so he asked them.

"Just follow us, only a dragon can find it." Hiccup replied, Jack nodded and there they went, avoiding the fires shot by the black dragon every now and then.

They reached the dragon's nest, the very place where they defeated the Green Death. Toothless and Stormfly flew low side by side as Hiccup and Astrid sat on top of them, Jack flew gripping his staff tightly.

"Should I freeze it?" he asked, freezing it would be much easier, right?

"I don't think so, dragons breathe fire, so the fire is coming from their insides. If you freeze it, it won't do anything." Hiccup explained. Jack nodded and asked him what the plan was instead.

"Toothless and I will fly high and shoot its wings. Then we'll fly down to knock it over, Jack and Astrid, distract it so it'll be easier." he explained.

"Got'cha." Astrid said.

"Got it." Jack said and they flew in separate directions.

The dragon didn't stand or fly still or anything, it immediately blew fire towards Astrid and Stormfly, who avoided it easily by flying higher. Hiccup and Toothless flew high up in the clouds and they were so hidden up there is would seem as if they vanished.

Jack and Astrid along with Stormfly are being chased by the black dragon, causing them three to fly circles around the island, and then they hid. Jack behind a rock high above and Astrid and Stormfly stayed at the opposite side of the island.

Unfortunately, Astrid and Stormfly were found way too quickly. The black beast inhaled and black gas was coming out of its mouth, Jack was just above so he can see that it was about to shoot fire towards Astrid and Stormfly.

"Astrid!" he shouted, she heard and saw the dragon and flew off quickly. The dragon blew the lighted gas towards Jack instead, he stopped the fire by throwing out a huge wall of ice.

The dragon was quite naiïve so Jack got away easily. It was left flapping its wings in one place, confused. All of a sudden, a quick ball of blue fire was shot to its wings. It caused a hole.

Jack knew what Hiccup and Toothless are doing and shot ice to its head, the dragon got irritated and blew fire out of its mouth until the ice melted the ice. Astrid had Stormfly breathe fire towards the dragon's wings by the back. The wings got so hot that if a pebble fell ontop of it, it would cause another hole.

Toothless fired again, another hole. Again, and again, he shot fire to its wings from above. Toothless and Hiccup finally came down and the dragon chased them. Even though Toothless, a Night Fury, probably has the speed of light, the dragon out of nightmares was possibly just as fast.

Jack formed a snowball and threw it to the dragon so that it may chase him instead of Hiccup and Toothless. It worked. It can't fly though, the dragon tried though. It ended up flapping its wings and falling in a manner that looked like a man falling from a high place with him flapping his arms as if it were wings but ended up falling aimlessly.

So, it fell diagonally and knocked over some boulders, causing them to fall where Hiccup and Toothless were flying at. Toothless flew quickly so they can avoid the falling rocks. Hiccup though, the leather rope that served as a safety belt for him got unhooked from the ring... Hiccup fell with the boulder just above him.

Once he had hit the ground, the boulder fell ontop of him. Jack and Astrid watched him in horror from afar. Toothless burned the black dragon and the four of them ran to get the giant rock off of Hiccup.

Astrid's eyes are filled with tears, she took Hiccup's body and once she touched his hair at the back of his head, her hand got wet for blood was right behind it.

"Hiccup..." Astrid cried, as she held onto his head. Jack sobbed quietly at the back, Toothless and Stormfly doing just the same.

"We need to take him to Rapunzel." Jack demanded, they hurriedly took him to Toothless and Astrid rode him to make sure Hiccup doesn't fall off.

"A-Astrid," Hiccup says in a hoarse voice, Astrid looked at him immediately, "Where are Toothless and Jack?"

"We're on Toothless, Jack is beside us." she answered.

"Tell him to make sure he rescues Merida, and Toothless, thanks for always being there for me, bud, I'll see you both soon." he said merely in a whisper.

"No, Hiccup! You won't die. You'll be here to help us save Merida, don't say that!" Jack shouted to Hiccup who didn't show any other reaction but a faint smile.

"Astrid..." he now said.

"Yes?" she replied worrily.

"It's a bit too early, heck, it's way early! But I feel like now's the only time to say this to you..." he said, his eyes half closed, "But I always loved you."

"I love you too." she managed to cry out of the sobs. Hiccup smiled and turned his eyes closed, "No no no no no, stay with me, Hiccup!"

"We're here!" Jack shouted, they flew in and Astrid never stopped crying. Jack barged inside Rapunzel's room and tried to wake her up. Toothless kept trying to wake Hiccup up, with his head, he pushed his arm and body gently.

Hiccup never moved.


	10. Chapter 10

"No no no, Hiccup, don't you die on me!" Astrid shouted, "Jack! Where the hell are you?!"

"I'm here!" he said, dragging a sleepy Rapunzel, rubbing her eyes beside him.

"Jack, what is—Oh my Gosh, Hiccup!" she shouted once she saw their friend, lying unconscious on their floor with Astrid crying and her hands drenched in blood. Rapunzel immediately held his body through the back, and placed her head on his chest, above his heart.

It wasn't beating.

"R-Rapunzel…" Astrid said, her voice was cracking it seemed like she croaked.

"Just hang on." she answered, loosening the braid of her hair and wrapping it above his heart, some strands are placed around his head. Then, she began to sing, and as she was singing, her hair began to glow.

_Flower, Gleam and glow  
Let your power shine_

Outside of the castle, the guards saw two dragons fly into the castle. They didn't mind, dragons started to visit the castle regularly. They continued to guard outside with a sword in a sheath that hung on their belts and a frying pan in their hands. The guards, they couldn't believe it that their leader is a horse, but Maximus is a smart horse who knows what he's doing so it's fine.

When they begin to see a big, dark figure with his hands hid behind his back, he was far and surrounded by fog. He's walking towards them, or the castle. They squint their eyes and saw that the dark figure was actually two. Their grip on the frying pans tightened.

_make the clock reverse  
bring back what once was mine_

The guards dropped their frying pans once they saw the two men bring their hands to their sides, showing off the long blades that replaced their fingers. They immediately took the frying pans again with one hand and grasped their swords with the other.

_Heal what has been hurt  
Change the face design_

The time came when these two men are in front of them, the guards. They stared at the two thugs who are both the colour black, completely, their eyes, their hair, their bodies, and they look identical. One has an eye patch and the other has a scar on his chin, both had metal cuffs on their wrists with the chains broken. Their appearance reminded the guards of the Stabbington brothers, except with blades as fingers, but those two are in prison, in another country, in a different continent!

"Where's the girl?" the one with the eye patch said, his voice was slow and really deep and husky, different from the Stabbington brothers'.

"Which girl?" one guard asked.

"The one… with golden… hair." the other said, pausing at the sentences, almost as if he had difficulty in saying out words. He said this with the same husky voice as the first one. The guards knew they were talking about Rapunzel, the princess is in danger.

"The prince—she erm, she went out with her husband." he lied. The shadow-like thugs knew this, who would go out when it's almost morning? They raised their blades and plunged in into the guard's heart. The others saw and they began attack. But the two were swift and they know how to control the blades in their fingers.

They ended up killing seven of the guards and had three run away. The two men helped themselves, sniping the locks of the gates and entering the palace.

_Save what has been lost  
Bring back what once was mine,_

The two thugs silently marched into the castle and up the stairs, their dark physique made it easier for them to hide for it is past midnight. They checked the rooms silently to see if the girl with the golden hair was there, but so far, she isn't. They reached the next floor when they heard singing.

_… what once was mine_

A young woman was singing and her hair was glowing, she has stopped now, her hair also. They remained hiding at the stairs to see what they are doing.

Rapunzel, Flynn, Astrid, Jack, Toothless and Stormfly stared at Hiccup exactly after Rapunzel stopped singing. She tied her hair at her back and breathed slowly, Hiccup's head begins to move. Hiccup breathes very slowly and his eyes struggle to open. The six looked at him much closer, and when his eyes opened,

"Why are you all staring at me?" he asked. The six ignored his question and hugged him immediately while laughing.

Astrid punched him lightly on the shoulder, "Don't ever do that again!"

"Why is it always violence when it comes to you?" he said, they only laughed and helped him sit up.

"Hiccup, it's so good to have you back." Rapunzel said.

"Yeah, Hic, we thought we lost you." Jack said, "Don't worry though, it won't happen again."

Hiccup smiled and nodded with his arm around Astrid and Toothless embracing him at his other side.

"What happened, though?" Flynn asked.

"Hiccup, he…" Jack began to explain, but stopped once he saw what was behind Rapunzel, a shadow of a huge man raising his hands up with long, sharp blades, about to cut Rapunzel's neck! He jumped towards her and carried her to safety. The blade had hit the floor and unfortunately cut the bottom of Rapunzel's dress.

Flynn walked forward and turned around, seeing that the man was actually two and as they stepped into the light, his jaw dropped. They looked like the Stabbington brothers, immediately, Flynn took one of those metal bars you use for a fireplace to fix the firewood near him and hit the blades like swords.

Hiccup and Astrid climbed quickly on their dragons and Jack froze the sides of the two shadows as Flynn ran to Rapunzel, who was hurriedly braiding her hair for it might get cut. She had half of it done when the two thugs began to attack them. Flynn once again crossed metals with them, Toothless shot a ball of blue fire towards those thugs, it didn't pass through them, it made them fall on their backs and the walls of the living room burn. It awoke the king and queen, along with Merida's brothers.

Jack froze the wall to tame the fire, "Punzie, run!"

Rapunzel ran as quickly as she can, the two thugs saw her and ran after her. Flynn swiped the metal bar he held to the thugs who got hit by their heads, he kicked their legs and they tripped, giving Jack access hit them on the head easily, which he did.

The king and queen opened their doors with tired eyes, but before they could even see anything, Flynn rushed to close the doors and shouted, "No, don't go out! Stay in your rooms!"

Their eyes widened a bit, they stared at each other, confused. The king went to his sword which was leaning against his bed side inside its sheath. He took it out and slowly tried to open the door, he saw a small bit of the scenario happening outside, he closed the door immediately, his wife looked at him with worried eyes while they are still in their night gowns.

"What's happening?" she asked, **{A/N: I wonder how their voices sound like…}**

"It's like war out there, Eugene is crossing blades with a shadow-like man twice the size of our little girl, the dragons are there, and that 'Jack' boy!" he said.

"Where's Rapunzel?"

"They must've let her run off." he answered.

"What should we do?"

"You stay here, I'll go and fight."

She looked at him and hugged him, before he took a deep breath and went out.

Jack was fighting the thug with his staff a sword and Flynn was doing the same except, he was using the metal bar. Jack and Flynn's footwork was flawless and they worked with their 'swords' as if it was an extended arm. But then the thugs noticed that Rapunzel wasn't even in the room anymore. They quickly ran to the stairs, leaving Jack and Flynn staring at each other in horror.

"You go to Rapunzel, I'll handle these two." Flynn said, Jack was about to hesitate as Flynn couldn't fight them both, it will be two against one. That's when Rapunzel's father stepped in. He held the two by their shoulders.

"Jack, go. I'll help Flynn." he said, he and Flynn smirked at each other, knowing that they can handle this. Jack flew to the stairs and made a wall of ice in front of the two thugs that would hopefully stall them. He saw Rapunzel running across the low bridge that leads to the forest. He flew beside her.

She felt the wind around her so she turned her head and saw Jack.

"Let's hurry, Punz." he said as he carried her and they flew somewhere else, going to the forest would mean they could meet Pitch.

Flynn and Rapunzel's father have been fighting with the thugs, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless and Stormfly have been roaring and shooting fire. They hit the thugs successfully but they also end up having the walls and/or floor on fire. Hopefully, Jack will return with Rapunzel safe.

Jack and Rapunzel sat by the market place. They sat there with a single post as their only light.

"What… What are they?" Rapunzel wondered out-loud.

"They're made out of shadows. Pitch made them to kill you, like he did to kill Hiccup." Jack answered.

"How did you know that?"

"He told me."

"When?"

"When I went after Merida alone. We fought, and he said that he'll go after you two, and if that's done, he'll have Merida join him in the dark side." Jack explained.

"She would never!" she gasped.

"I hope so too," he said, looking at the moon, "we should go back, they've probably killed them by now."

"They probably have."

And they're right, it was a tough one at first. Flynn's head almost got snipped off but Rapunzel's father luckily saved him. He plunged his sword through the heart of the one about to kill Flynn and Flynn chopped the head of the other one. Toothless and Stormfly were about to burn the bodies but then, their bodies turned to smoke. As well was their blood.

Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, Flynn, Stormfly, and the king all stared at it, surprised.

"What was that thing?!" he said.

"My guess, a form out of Pitch's nightmares." Astrid said, Hiccup agreed.

"Well, I hope they're the only ones there are."

"Us too." Hiccup said.

"Obviously, not." said a voice to himself, outside of the balcony, Pitch watched them. He was furious to know that Jack and his friends have killed two of his big nightmares in one night. He planned to make the bear that was about to kill Merida much bigger, much scarier, much worse, he will show no mercy. The second she says no, he'll kill her on the spot.

"Just wait, Jack Frost," he said to himself with such wrath, "all of your loved ones will be gone. Starting with the _one you care for most._" and with that, he vanished into the shadows.


	11. Chapter 11

Jack arrived back to the castle with Rapunzel on his back. He arrived with Toothless and Stormfly lying on the half burnt carpet, Hiccup and Astrid sitting right beside each other on one of the sofas, and Flynn drinking a cup of water while standing next to a big arm chair where Rapunzel's father sat. On the other long settee sat the triplets with Rapunzel's mother sat. They noticed that everything is messy, two of the castle's housemaids are cleaning and arranging the furniture.

"Mom, dad!" Rapunzel shouted and hugged her dad, then her mom.

"Honey, we're so glad you're safe." her mother said while higging her tightly.

"What happened?" she asked, taking in the look of her surroundings.

"Your husband and your father fought the two men." her mother answered, kissing the top of her head. Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other and cleared their throat, "Oh! And those two lovely Vikings too."

They smiled somewhat forcibly and took a sip in their cup of water. Jack held his staff tight and then faced Rapunzel's parents.

"Your majesties, we're sorry for this—I'm sorry for this, it's my fault." he said sincerely.

The king and his wife looked at Jack, who expected a lecture. He instead received a smile, a warm one from the king and the queen. Rapunzel smiled as well, happy that her parents aren't angry.

"It's okay, Jack. Although it would be nice if you told us what had just happened." Rapunzel's mother said.

"Of-Of course, well-well, I—" Jack was sweating, he didn't know where to start. He was the coldest (literally) person in the planet and he's nervous. He's sweating almost as if he was meeting his lover's parents for the first time, "Back then, the Boogeyman wanted to believed in,"

The king and his queen listened carefully up until he finished with the words: "So, Pitch looked for revenge and planned to kill all my loved ones, starting with Hiccup and your daughter."

They looked at Jack, wide-eyed.

"Well, that's just… we should send our soldiers to go and help." The king said, standing up and began walking towards the stairs.

"No! You shouldn't." Jack said immediately, standing in front of him so that he couldn't pass.

"Why? This… madness has to stop. You can't do it alone." the king said to Jack, the queen finally stood up from the settee as did Rapunzel.

"Actually, your highness, we might. The Bogeyman is very powerful, he can kill your men in a flash. We can't risk that happening." Jack said.

"What do you propose we do then?" he asked.

"Just… I don't know yet. The current plan is to train the children so that they can defend themselves when they fight Pitch—"

"Children? Children can fight Pitch Black and trained soldiers can't?" the queen said.

"The children keep the nightmares away, they believe. No offence, but it's kind of hard to expect the same thing to grown ups." Jack said.

"Then what makes you think you and your friends can defeat him?"

"We're quite a team, your highness."

"Alright then, tell us what we could do and we'll do it. Only so that Princess Merida would be rescued." the king said. Rapunzel has to have the nicest parents ever, Jack thought.

"Thank you, your majesties." Jack said, the two nodded and smiled.

"In the meantime, I'll go call the maids to replace these burnt carpets and curtains." Rapunzel's mum said.

"I hope we can get to her in time." Jack said.

Morning came a few hours later. The five, not including Toothless and Stormfly, were tired as hell. Rapunzel and Flynn woke up to the smell of waffles, actually, it was only Flynn who woke up to that smell. He kissed Rapunzel's forehead, this is what woke her up.

In Berk, Hiccup woke to the sound of his dad shouting at all the other Vikings. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, he walked on the hard wood floor and sat on his desk, he sighed. Toothless woke up a few minutes later, but he remained sitting on his bed.

Jack flew to the North Pole, in North's workshop. The yetis are just relaxing, who could blame them when Christmas just finished? He knocked on the door to North's office and waited. The door opened. He saw North with his sleeves rolled up, revealing the tattoos he had on his forearms, and a smile showed on his face.

"Hello, Jack." he greeted, North can be quite jolly. Proof is because there is the fact that Pitch is out loose again and he's still… happy as ever.

"Hey, North." Jack said, North could see the stress on Jack's face. He gestured him to go inside so he did.

"What is wrong, Jack?" North said in a fatherly tone.

"Uh, you remember Merida, right?" Jack said, North nodded, "Well, Pitch has her locked in the tower and he told me… that he plans to kill Hiccup and Rapunzel, he failed but now, all that's left is Merida."

North gave him a look of sympathy and placed his big hand on Jack's back, "Well then maybe you should go after her."

"I already tried, North. I couldn't get her out. I fought Pitch but I couldn't win." Jack is now hating on himself.

"Then bring us with you, bring your other friends with you."

"Uh, how about we go there and you train the children. Teach them how to protect themselves, how to fight. And we'll go to Merida."

"Jack, is training the children really necessary?" North asked Jack honestly, Jack gave a questioning look.

"Yes." he said with confidence, he was sure it was needed.

"Okay, I'll go call the others, but make sure Sandy goes with you. With the two of you off to fight Pitch, he's sure to die—uh, to pass out." North said.

Jack did a small chuckle, he smiled at North, "Thank you, North. Rapunzel's castle is in the kingdom of Corona, by the way."

"Anytime, Jack. Now go, get your friends and go after Merida. I'll go get the other guardians." he said, Jack nodded and as he was about to fly off, "Jack." North said.

"Yeah?"

"Hurry up."

He nodded and left.

Jack arrived in Corona and was greeted by the children, Hiccup and Astrid, Flynn and Rapunzel, Toothless and Pascal, the king and queen, and a few of the guards. The boys were holding daggers, a bit bigger than regular sized ones and smaller than regular sized swords with Flynn and a few guards. A few of the girls were standing in front of Hiccup while he's on a dragon and while he's explaining, the others are with Astrid doing the exact same thing.

Jack went over to Rapunzel, who was in the kitchen as always. He sat on the counter top with his staff as Rapunzel was drinking water.

"Hi, Jack." she greeted.

"Hey, Punz." he said, "Listen, I need you to go get Hiccup, Astrid and Flynn. We need to go look for Merida, Pitch might be trying to kill her now."

"Okay." she said and ran out, Jack followed. She called Hiccup and Flynn and Astrid and said that Jack and them have to go to Merida just in case Pitch does anything.

"But who will train the children?" Astrid asked, suddenly, the winds grew colder and stronger. They all looked at the balcony and saw four people enter, in a very awesome way. They all rode in a sleigh that looks simply amazing, there are bells and it's really really shiny.

"We will." someone spoke with a Russian accent.

"By the way, I'm just doing this because of Pitch. Not for Jack." an Australian accent said.

Astrid, Hiccup, Rapunzel, Flynn and Jack turned around and saw the guardians. Rapunzel squealed in delight, she always wanted to meet the guardians. Astrid, Hiccup and Flynn's jaws dropped in awe as they saw the people as Jack sighed but smiled afterwards.

"Guys, North and Bunny and Tooth will handle the kids. Sandy will go with us." Jack said.

"Thank you so much." Rapunzel said.

"Any time, Rapunzel." North said.

"You know my name! Santa Clause knows my name!" she fan girled, North laughed.

"Call me North." he smiled to her.

"Well, we better go down now." Jack said, they decided to take the stairs since the dragons are outside. Rapunzel, Hiccup, Astrid and Flynn walked down the staircase as Jack flew. They reached the ground floor where the guards are at. Only, the guards are talking to someone.

Rapunzel got curious and walked towards them. There, she saw a man and woman who are in their late thirties. The man was huge and he… wore a checker-ed skirt, he had red hair like Merida's and a beard. He also had a peg leg and he kept looking at the castle towers in fascination. The woman had very long brunette hair that's parted and tied in two, she wore a crown and a green dress. She was scowling. Rapunzel walked back to her friends, her face showed that she was thinking.

"Who was that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, I'm not really expecting any guests. I can tell that they're nobles, though. They're wearing crowns and… the man was wearing a skirt." Rapunzel said, sort of confused that the king wore a skirt. Hiccup's eyes widened.

"Does… Does the woman have fair skin and brown hair… is she wearing a green dress?" Hiccup asked her nervously.

"She is, yeah. How'd you know that?"

"That's Merida's mother!"

Their eyes widened, "Merida's a princess?" Jack, Rapunzel and Flynn asked at the same time.

"Yes, I thought you knew." Hiccup said at them. Jack looked at his feet, feeling sad for a reason, "Someone should talk to them, keep them distracted so that we can go after her daughter."

They all looked at each other pointedly, Hiccup has told them how prudent and cautious Merida's mother is. They didn't know that Queen Elinor can be kind and loving. How would they? Merida doesn't tell stories about her family.

"Hiccup, you should do it." Rapunzel said.

"Wha—Why me?" he said.

"You've met her before, she could listen to you." she said.

"I don't think you listened well enough when I told you about her family, on how she _hates_ me."

"Well, who would go?"

"We should pick straws!" Flynn said, Rapunzel sighed at the thought, picking straws is a silly method but she went away and took six sticks. One is longer than the others.

"Alright." Flynn said, they all closed their eyes and took turns in taking a stick from Rapunzel's hand. This method is simple, the one who got the longest stick would be the one to talk to Merida's parents.

Flynn went first, and then Astrid, then Hiccup, then Sandy, then Jack, and last, Rapunzel. Jack got the longest.

"Go Jack." Hiccup said, fake prep talk. Jack nodded and exhaled.

"Hey, Hiccup, why are you so afraid of them anyway? You defeated the Green Death, what did they do?" he asked.

"Her dad is the bear king, he has a peg leg after fighting the demon bear, Mor'du, and he also doesn't do anything else without the approval of his wife." he said.

"That doesn't really sound so scary, but wish me luck on distracting them." Jack said, Sandy gave him two thumbs up and a bright smile, internally saying to him 'Good luck'.

"Thanks, Sandy." he said and then walked to the Scottish couple.

"It makes me wonder how they found out her daughter is here." Flynn said, placing two of his fingers on his chin.

"She probably told them before going here." Astrid said, Sandy nodded.

"All we want to know, is where our children are." Queen Elinor said.

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am." Jack said. Elinor probably didn't hear him, she didn't even look up. So, Jack tried again, "Your highness." he said louder. The guards saw him but the king and queen didn't. They told her that Jack Frost was calling them. Queen Elinor almost glared at the guards, this confused Jack. King Fergus scrunched up his eyebrows.

"Don't fib with us, Jack Frost isn't real. Now tell me where my children are." Queen Elinor said, Jack's eyes widened, so did his friends, who were listening and watching from his back.

"Please, just take us to our sons, and especially my wee darlin', Merida." King Fergus said. Jack returned to his friends with a sad face.

"I… I'll go." Flynn said.

"Eugene," Rapunzel said, "make sure they don't know Merida's going trapped inside my old tower."

"Sure." he said and walked towards her parents.

"Merida? Princess Merida? Don't you know that she's tra—"

"No. She isn't, the princess is… is… is—uh…" Flynn cut the guard off from finishing his sentence, he tried to think of an excuse but couldn't think of any. That's when Astrid came.

"She's in the forest, shooting arrows." she said.

"Yeah." Flynn said. Queen Elinor and King Fergus looked at them suspiciously but bought it anyway. Astrid and Flynn distracted them long enough for Rapunzel, Jack, Hiccup and Sandman to leave.

Rapunzel rode on Maximus, Hiccup on Toothless, Sandman on a small aeroplane made out of his magic sand, and Jack who relied on his flying abilities with his staff. The went off to make sure Pitch doesn't do anything.

A few hours before, Pitch left the kingdom after watching Rapunzel and her friends and family talk after defeating his clones of the Stabbington brothers, and then appeared back inside the tower. He saw Merida lying on the ground, sleeping. He gazed at her with angry eyes, yet, he wondered what made Jack like this girl. She wasn't as pretty as his blonde friend, she wasn't half as pretty as Toothiana. She's always on his nerves, always trying to argue with him. Merida even threatened him that she'll shoot him with an arrow once she's free!

Then, he remembered that Merida is a noble; she's a princess. _That must be the reason why he likes her_, he thought, because Merida has a high title. He kicked her gently at her stomach for her to wake up but it didn't work. So, he created a load of black sand in his palms and sprinkled them over her. She felt the sand and scratched her nose, but more came and she sneezed, causing her to wake her up.

"What the hell, Pitch?!" she shouted, her eyes slightly puffy.

"Get up, princess." he said, Merida only sat up slowly, "Quickly!" he shouted, Merida's speed didn't increase, she was still tired. But later, she was now on her feet.

"Now, I'll give you a question."

"Oh joy." she sarcastically, Pitch glared at her and cleared his throat.

Pitch asked her the question if she wanted to join him in the dark side, Merida at first said no. Pitch said they can work together and kill Jack Frost, Merida wasn't able to reply. Of course, she found Jack annoying, but now?

"So what's your final answer, yes or no? Tell me now." Pitch said.

"No."

Pitch smirked, this made Merida shudder, her face fell because she knew that Pitch had something planned.

"Merida," he said, "do you remember the bear that almost killed your mother?"

She hesitantly looked at him, she saw him smiling while looking at something behind her. She looked terrified and slowly looked behind her. In the darkness, she saw a big figure. Huge, thrice her size! She looked back to where Pitch stood only to see a cloud of smoke. She stepped backwards and more and when she finally saw the figure better, she looked horrified with her mouth open and eyes widened. She shouted and ran away from the bear that looked like Mor'du as fast as she can.

But then she remembered,

Her wrists are chained.


End file.
